Gaming Stories, Video and Tabletop

My DnD sessions include a lot of my character being incredulous at the way other people think

Me: So, there is an orb of darkness and when you washed up in a cavern with a young girl as a child, it was talking to you.

NPC Paladin: Yes

Me: And there is a Queen of Darkness who was sealed away centuries ago by a Dark Hero

NPC Paladin: also yes

Me: And you don't think one of those is connected to the other?

NPC Paladin: That seems unlikely

Me: That there would be all of these darkness related things, in an area which has a localized field of eternal darkness that has lasted for millennia. That there would not be some kind of source to it, or that other darkness related entities would come here looking for the source of that phenomena

NPC Paladin: Oh, when you put it that way it makes sense

Me: Yes, yes it does. Now go along and help us with rationing and holy water you wonderful himbo

*later after torturing a Penanggalan (vampire head monster), the NPC Paladin was involved in said torture which included baths in holy water and sacred salts*

Me: So, there is a necromancer involved according to this one. Does anyone have a sending scroll, my uncle is a wizard involved in necromancy. We can ask him for help. I'm sure the paladin order has a few of those.

NPC Paladin: We do, but those are for emergencies and you would have to pay to use it

Me: No, nonono. You see, there is a necromancer raising an army of the dead, controlling a night hag, and using a fucking flying head vampire as his minions, one who has laid several curses on the town and surrounding countryside. You have Sending Scrolls specifically for when you have weird and fucked up shit and need someone to consult. I, graciously, am giving you information about a wizard who knows necromancy and is not insane. A valuable resource. One who is not going to be charging you for his expertise.

*during said torture*

Me: I don't know the weaknesses of a Pananggalan. Do you have silverware?

NPC Paladin: Yes *brings silverware*

Me: *presses silver spoon near vampire's eye*

Vampire Head: That doesn't work on me. If you let me go free I will lead you to where you need to go

Me: *Stab it in the eye* We have already gone over the fact that you not dying will result in more villagers succumbing to your curse, and we are in a paladin order's HQ. Do you really think I can let you go? Your options are to die or be a pet, and how you cooperate determines how horrible the former will be.

Vampire Head: *tries to bite*

Me: And now you are losing the teeth

GM: I forgot how brutal you guys could be

Me: She is telling me to free her while right next to a paladin who can smite giant monsters. I am not helping her. *makes sure to doublecheck on all information the vampire gives us*

NPC Paladin: *starts to crush the vampire's head with his bare hands just cause*

Me: That is just cruel.

NPC Paladin: You stabbed it in the eye

Me: To get information, you are just doing it because you hate undead and enjoy causing them suffering.

then things got wrong as we were told that there were weird hunters in the woods

Me: Do they eat people?

NPC Paladin: no, but they eat all the monsters they kill

Me: That is normal, it would only be weird if they eat people

NPC Paladin: No.

Gnome: Or gnomes

Me: gnomes are people

Gnome: Are we, I never thought of them like that

Me:...this is out of character right?

Gnome: ...

Me:...So, back to in character. "Gnomes might look alike to me but I don't think they aren't people."

NPC Paladin: They do look alike

Me: I was joking, what the fuck man.

Gnome: Paladin, do you think your friends are going to betray us.

Me: You are asking a Paladin, if he thinks his Paladin friends are going to break their oaths and turn to the forces of darkness to rule as undead overlords over the land

Gnome: Yes

Me: Do you want him to kill us?

Gnome: No

Me: Don't question the honor of Paladins, especially when it gets into heretical territory *starts dragging gnome away before she can start an incident with a small army of paladins*

and when the game was done, we talked about vampire

Me: Okay, did you look at Gangrel as a clan at all since we last played

Gangrel/Bruce: No

Me:..So, there are these things called Gathers. Which is when all the Gangrel in the area come together, exchange stories, and fight for fun. Would you have gone to any of them

Bruce: No

Me: What did you do for 20 years?

Bruce: Stay in the woods

Me: You mean the park in Gary, those "woods" out there?

Bruce: Yes

Me:...For 20 years

Bruce: yes

Me: You would have fucking derangements then given how you apparently shun every vampire in the city and avoid even talking to your sire.

Bruce: It is fine

Me: You put your demeanor as explorer, you can not have explored a park for 20 years

Bruce: I explore on my own, in the park.

Lasombra (Guiseppi): That really isn't exploring

Me: Explorers go out, meet people, exchange stories while traveling the world. You apparently have been a hikikomori NEET living in a shed in a park for half your lifetime. That is not an explorer.

Bruce: I explore the mind

Me: Given the fact that you rejected every single attempt I made to have people discuss philosophy and history with you, then forgot them, no. No, you are not.

Bruce: Maybe I should remake this character?

Me: *looks at sheet* Why the fuck do you have medicine 2?

Bruce: To heal myself

Me/Guiseppi: You are a vampire, you heal by drinking blood.

Me: You have 4 dice on medicine since you have 2 int, that is like the average paramedic.

Guiseppi: Bruce is a med student who can make architecture, but he doesn't have technology or computers

Me: Correct

Guiseppi: Does he use an abacus?

Me: I think he just carves it in the dirt while doing math.

Bruce: Well I am a survivor at least

Me: You have managed to live in spite of yourself as I am a merciful god, and like half of that involved party-members *the zombie burrowing incident, Sullivan Dane, burning of the 7-11, choke slamming by Ravnos Anti-Tribu, not doing a thing after spotting a different hunter, trying to sneak past people that were directly in front of a door*

Me:...*looks at all of the sheets* Okay, Basket has technology, one of Guiseppi's ghouls has drive, his Revenant has technology 3. But no one has computers....is one of you just going to have to stop by a computer store and ghoul somebody so you guys can do internet searches? Will Bruce get somebody because he figures out that generators are a thing and he wants to have electricity in the shed he is going to have to build since the old one was destroyed by zombies due to his inaction?

Guiseppi: None of us can use a computer

Bruce: Yeah

Me: The two of you apparently are mystified by calculators and how to make those work beyond basic addition and multiplication. Basket is the only one of the three who can be trusted to charge a phone

 

Gangrel/Bruce had a flashback for his backstory

Spoiler

Me: Okay, so this is early in the 1970s. I think we agreed that you had an older brother and a baby sister

Bruce; Yes

Me: Has your character ever been in love

Bruce:...I wanna say yes

Me: Has he been arrested

Bruce: Probably, yeah

Me: Has he been in a gang?

Bruce: Teen gang or big gang?

Me: Well the Crips and Bloods in this universe are like Sabbat and Ghouls who hunt down vampires for their blood

Bruce: Why would they do that?

Me: Immortality, super strength, speed, mind control

Bruce: Oh yeah, I think a teenager gang

Me: Okay, so you are in a small house, there is a guy with grill teeth standing over a drug-making station, he is looking at you, your friend Deandre, and your four other guys in terror. Deandre has a gun out, pointed at the man.

Bruce: Woah, um, maybe we can de-escalate

Deandre: We need the drugs and money dude

Bruce: That doesn't mean shoot him

Me: The man runs for his closet

Deandre: We got to kill him, he's going for a gun

Bruce: We don't know that, let's just leave

Deandre: Why else would a drug dealer go for a closet?

Me: He is opening the closet

Deandre: He's going for a gun!

Me: do you stop Deandre

Bruce: I think I am just terrified and watching

Me: *rolls* Deandre shoots him *rolls* and kills him instantly. You see a young boy who had been hiding in the closet, screaming and crying as he looks at his dying family member. Presumably a father, uncle, or brother, and is trying to keep him from bleeding out

Bruce: Oh God, what did we do

Deandre: We need to run, get the gear guys, we can't let him see our faces.

Me: Bruce, Deandre takes your arm and is dragging you out, what do you do?

Bruce: Go for the phone

Me: Do you break out of his grip

Bruce: I stay with them for a bit before going

Me: Deandre is holding onto you as you guys flee

Bruce: I break off and go the other way, back to the house so I can call the cops

Deandre: What are you doing *runs after Bruce*

Bruce: *Keeps running*

Me: And *rolls 1 on conscience* He shoots you *rolls* and you fall to the ground since humans can't soak bullets. When you wake up, you are handcuffed to a hospital bed. How old would you say you are at this point?

Bruce: 16

Me: I believe you would be tried as a minor as an accessory to murder. Do you rat our the other members of your gang

Bruce: Just Deandre, he shot me. The cops probably won't be happy about me not turning over the others

Me: Well, you go to Juvie. I don't think they can send you to jail afterwards

Bruce: Maybe I started studying Architecture there (has 2 dots in crafts) and playing lots of basketball

Me: Okay, you get out of jail. Do you get into contact with the old gang

Bruce: Maybe the ones other than Deandre, just to get beers and stuff

Me: What is your family like?

Bruce: I think our parents are gone

Me: Really?

Bruce: Eh, maybe they are working somewhere else

Me: In Gary

Bruce: Yes

Me: *thinks about the time period* Maybe your dad is deployed in the military *rolls* and I got like lift operator in construction work for the mom. I guess there would be construction in like Chicago or somewhere in between

Bruce: That works, and she works from morning to night so she is barely there

Me: Your little sister was just born, you've met her for the first time, and your older brother is studying to become a priest.

Bruce: I guess I try to work at McDonalds (O'Tolleys), do I have my GED

Me: Did you take Academics?

Bruce: No

Me: Roll int

Bruce: Fail

Me: no

Bruce: Hmm, we said I had fallen in love

Me: *rolls* I got x-ray operator, so I guess a med student. Do you move in with her?

Bruce: Yeah

Me: How long are you at the fast food place?

Bruce: I'm not certain, maybe 2 years

Me: You have other skills

Bruce: *looks at sheet* Athletics is good I guess. I have medicine 2. Not sure how I got that.

Me: If we say you got that later, Lucian has Science 4...with a specialty in Relativity Theory. He apparently knew Einstein

Bruce: Einstein stole his work

Me: He is 2000 years old, it is hard to publish something and stay anonymous. He probably just shared information.

Bruce: I guess I try to become an basketball player

Me: That is like 8d10 for you

Almost all successes, lots of 10s

Me: You get a full ride scholarship as the Gary Steelheads *fudging dates* want you on their team.

Bruce: I study architecture more

Me: *rolls* So, your dad dies in Vietnam

Bruce; That makes sense

Me: *starts rolling one stats, 4 int 4 wits 4 perception cha 3 man 3* Apparently your dad was an officer. *rolls* You see Deandre there

Bruce: That asshole

Me: Do you approach him?

Bruce: To ask what he is doing here

Deandre: Look, man, I know I did something horrible. But I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry

Me: *rolls* And you see the boy, grown older in the like 6 years since then. He has a gun

Bruce: No

Me: *rolls* He shoots Deandre in the chest *rolls damage and again for the second attack* and once in the head, taking out a piece of Deandre's skull as he falls to the ground. The boy looks at you, then *rolls* runs away as the crowd starts screaming. What do you do?

Bruce: I try to save Deandre, but I don't think it would work.

Me: The head shot did less than the one to the chest, but you can see inside his skull, your hands are covered in blood

Deandre: I'm sorry for everything

Bruce OOC: Ahahaa, wow this is terrible

Me: Yeah

Bruce OOC: I think becoming a vampire might actually be the upswing for this guy

Me: Possibly. *rolls* and your mother does not commit suicide.

Bruce OOC: What happened with the kid

Me: I rolled d100s and he consistently got 100s and 90+s. I think he is just The Punisher of Gary

Bruce OOC: Make sense

Me: Gary kind of is a terrible place. Do you get depression after all of this

Bruce OOC: Yeah

Me: So your grades are slipping, your feel terrible all the time and are drinking a lot. *rolls* Your girlfriend leaves you and the teachers are faking your grades though because of the athletics stuff

Bruce; Like real life

Me: Do you turn to crime to try and get a thrill?

Bruce: I break into places but just hang around them, like my highschool *succeeds larceny but botches athletics*

Me: You break in but sprain your foot as you climb in the window. Start drinking more, go by your old homeroom, wander around outside and stand in the bleachers where you would have been at for graduation if you hadn't gone to Juvie. Your coach sits you down the next day and says you can't keep coming home drunk and hurt like this.

Bruce: I know, I just don't know what to do

Me: Do you clean up your act?

Bruce: Yeah

Me: So the day of your first game *5 successes* goes wonderfully, you win the game for your team. Gary feels pride for the first time in a long while. You rush home because your brother has been taking care of your sister and depressed mom *rolls* your brother is on the ground with a giant bruise as he has been hit on the head, and your mother is lying in a pool of blood

Bruce: What did you roll on that?

Me: a 6 on a d100

Bruce: Oof. I try to get an ambulance

Me: That works, what then?

Bruce; Find the people who did this *3 successes*

Me: So you end up seeing the boy again

Bruce; He did it?

Me: No, you were both looking into it. He gives you what he found and you figure out where the gang that broke into your home in a robbery tend to stay. What do you do with this?

Bruce: I could call the cops on them, but I think I go there

Me: Okay. Athletics and brawl rolls (he has like 8 dice on athletics and 9 for brawl due to how we use specialties)

Almost all successes

Me: You just break down the door and they come up, but you are too fast. people are being thrown out of windows, smashed through tables, arms are broken over furniture, noses are smashed into the backs of their skulls, ears are being torn off

Bruce: Wow, ears

Me: You took a specialty in dirty fighting. The question is, do you kill any of them?

Bruce: Not intentionally

Me: roll self control, I will assume it was 3 since you have instinct now

Bruce: 3 successes

Me: So as you are punching one guy in the face over and over again while grappling him to the ground, he shouts. "Who the fuck are you" and you just pause and stare at him, holding back

Bruce: So I don't kill him

Me: Nope, you succeeded on self control. Do you leave them or what?

Bruce: I think I just walk out the door

Me: You see an Italian man in a suit and trench coat, it looks like he just paused in the middle of walking down the street and stared after the first guy got thrown out the window and sailed out of it.

Lucian: Should I call the cops

Bruce: Probably, *keeps walking*

Me: He just goes to the payphone and calls 911 to make sure they get medical attention. Do you ever look for him?

Bruce: No

Me: Okay, you start seeing that guy around town. Like at the Endron Gas station outside where you used to work and just around. Eventually, the cops show up at your house

Bruce: I guess there goes the job and scholarship

Me: Do you try to run?

Bruce: I won't get them back. So I just walk with them

Me: As you get into the back of the police car, one of them just says to the other. "You know, if these people just wore gloves they might get away with it"

Bruce: Note to self on that

Me: They take you to jail. Your brother comes to visit you and just cries, asking why you did it.

Bruce: I didn't have any other choice.

Me: and that night, you see the Italian man again

Bruce: Hi again

Lucian: I imagine you won't get far with a public defender

Bruce: Probably not

Lucian: I could provide a lawyer

Bruce: I'd appreciate it

Me: *rolls 4 successes on the lawyer* The Lawyer manages to get you off, saying that you were not in the right state of mind, pointing out a history of depression and the like. It is a night trial, so the man, Lucian, is there as you walk out the steps of the courthouse *rolls* and a car rolls by, lowers the windows, and a pistol barks twice as gangsters shoot you

Bruce; The mafia or street gang

Me: Street gang, you left those guys alive so they came back to kill you

Bruce; They are assholes

Me: Yes, so *rolls on to hit and damage, too many tens* and like with Deandre, one hits you in the chest, and another in the head as Lucian looks horrified and grabs a hold of your dying body

Bruce: Being a vampire definitely was an improvement,

Me: And you wake up in the morgue, there is a Y incision on your chest that is healing, you feel hungrier than you've ever been in your life. Lucian is looking over you and sighs

Lucian: Well, it is time I take you home now son

Me: So now there is the whole Path of the Feral Heart thing

Bruce: What does Lucian have

Me: Lucian has humanity 5, because he at least tries to act like a decent human being.

Bruce; Only five, isn't he like 2000 years old

Me: It is because he is 2000, most elders tend to degenerate over time

Bruce: That makes sense

Me; 5 is removed, so he doesn't feel particularly bad about unintentionally draining someone due to starvation, but intentionally destroying people's stuff, killing someone out of rage, or frenzying are still horrifying to him.

Bruce: Well that's good

Me: So I guess you are just disassociating from humanity or something, and Lucian has to keep dragging you back to his haven and keep you in there to keep you from doing something horrible

Bruce; Yeah, I did not think on this much.

Me: No you didn't. I need to find someone on the path of the beast, which I think is mostly Sabbat. I'm gonna fudge dates and say you met Celeste Lamontagne

Bruce: That is a mouthful

Me: Canada and French. She is a Sabbat, Path of Harmony instead of Feral Heart. But she explains the three main branches of the path of the Beast. Lucian hides her from Modius and the Camarilla as I think she had some time before becoming full on Sabbat and just being on a path, and he is just desperate to keep you from fully degenerating. It works, and she eventually leaves once you show that you aren't going to become a nomad

Bruce: So I guess that explains everything

Me: You meet Claudette at some point later on, she is basically adopted by Modius, partly because he thinks the two of you need social interaction. Did you ever go into any Gathers

Bruce: I'm not sure

Me: In 20 years

Bruce; Maybe when I was first turned

Me: So roll Dex+Brawl

Bruce; *nearly all successes*

Me: You just beat the shit out all the neonates there. Eventually some bikers notice and one of them comes for you

Bruce: Gangrel Bikers

Me: Oh yeah. Jackie, the youngest of The Wolf Pack. Comes down and fights you. Roll

Bruce: *better at fighting and gets better rolls*

Me: So you defeat one of the bikers, then the leader, Tyrus, Comes down to fight you

Bruce: *1 fewer success then Tyrus*

Me: You managed to get in a hit, but then he pummels you. Tyrus is 400 years old, has celerity and potence, so it wasn't really going to end any other way once he got serious. But you managed to get in a hit which is better than most people here could do. As you fall, he catches you by one hand, keeping you from completely hitting the ground

Tyrus: You wanna be a biker

OOC Bruce; That is really anime

Me: You are Gangrel, they are a very anime clan. And you apparently don't take up the offer since you don't have drive

Bruce: I've been in gangs, it hasn't ended well.

Tyrus: The offer is open.

Me: Later you see your sire talking to Mark Decker, another of his Childer. He would have been fighting without a shirt. So you can see that he has a hole in his cut, his face has been slit from lip to ear, and there is another wound on his groin

Bruce: Who made you look like two face

Decker: The British shot and cut me up in the Revolution

Bruce; You are old

Decker: Lucian is from the Roman Republic

Bruce: Yeah. How are you

Decker; Well, Milwaukee has Werewolves. So, hurt but loving it. Be careful if you head over there

Bruce; I will

Me: You see an elderly old black woman who has not entered the fighting, but showed up while looking like a giant leopard

Bruce: Wow who is she

Me: She is Inyanga, a like 1500 year old Zulu woman. She was 40 when she was embraced but that is 40 in like 5th century Africa. Which is ancient. So she is all tiny and wrinkly.

Bruce: I will talk to her

Inyanga: Hello young Kindred, I see you encountered the Wolf Pack. While I know their opinions of the place, I would warn you of going to Chicago

Bruce: Why?

Inyanga; Lodin

OOC Bruce; I heard of him earlier, Modius hates him.

Bruce: What's with him?

Inyanga: Allow me to tell you a story. In the 1700s there was a young, strong man. Maximilien Rousseau, or Maxwell as he would be called. Born a slave in a French Colony's planntation

Bruce: Yikes, those places had terrible conditions

Inyanga: Indeed they did, on that farm Maxwell was worked to the bone, used for his strength in backbreaking labor that made him grow more and more powerful. But because of that, he was shipped off to be sold elsewhere. But, it was not a slaver who found him. But a philosopher member of the Brujah clan. His sire freed him and embraced Maxwell after teaching him as a ghoul. He knew of the ideals of Carthage before its fall, the Romans, and Greek philosophies and political theories and rhetoric. He traveled to the Americas and built a business, eventually settling in Chicago as it became a city, and declared his princeship

Bruce: he sounds awesome I'd like to meet him, wait, why is Lodin prince now

Inyanga: Lodin came to Chicago after Maxwell reigned peacefully for over 40 years. When the Great Fire came, Maxwell attempted to save the city, both Kindred and Kine. Lodin saw it as an opportunity though, asking the Primogen for his support while sending his Childer to assassinate Maxwell and those loyal to him. If he caused the fire, I do not know, but Lodin's involvement in the Pullman strikes and attacks against Modius, destroying businesses, jobs, wrecking economies, and usage of gangs would make me unsurprised

Bruce: That is super fucked up

Inyanga: Close to everything involving Lodin is, he sets his childer against each other, creating human suffering as he ensures they fight for dominance bleeding resources so they can never use them against him and hate each other so they will never join forces to oust him. Ethnic tensions and gang violence are tools for him, ending lives and ensuring more join it to shore up numbers and others cannot attack him. Maxwell survived, fleeing to South America as he tries to create a way to reclaim Chicago

Bruce: Well, I can't imagine anyone would like Lodin over him. And he is kind of why Gary is horrible

Inyanga; He is exactly why Gary is horrible, he made it a wasteland to ensure Modius was disgraced and keep him from ever rising as an enemy. Lodin is a tyrant who makes it so one must ask his permission to ever create even a ghoul, controls the cops, law, and media. Such that everyone is reliant upon him to cover the masquerade, any cover up is a boon to him, and he may freely punish others who had wished to enforce it by claiming they breached his domain, or send said forces against them and then say they breached it

Bruce: Wow, he is Satan

Inyanga: Many would agree.

Bruce: I'd definitely prefer Maxwell

Inyanga: As would I, and I would hope Clan Gangrel supported him

Bruce: Yes

Inyanga; Yes

Bruce: I see

Me: That is probably enough.

Bruce: Yeah

Me: Would you have kept up to date on Chicago

Bruce: Definitely, Lodin is evil and sounds like the big Bad

Me: This was in the 70s, so you'd know that in the 80s. Maldavis, a Caitiff, caused a lot of trouble against Lodin, nearly dethroning him until he threw himself at the feet of the Primogen who agreed to help him if he gave them a lot of concessions which make it so he can't do anything major without a majority approval from them

Bruce: So he lost power

Me: Yeah, though he immediately killed almost all of Maldavis's supporters and made her a wreck of a person who is in hidinng

Bruce: He is a dick

Me: These are canon characters

We looked at lots of different artwork

Bruce OOC: Why does first edition look asian if she is supposed to be black

Me: the cards make her look white, at least the first one

Bruce OOC: The second one does as well. The newest art looks beautiful though

Me: This is a consistent issue with early art, be happy that I use noncanon images

Bruce OOC: I am

 

My DnD sessions always have in-character bickering

My Male Conquest Paladin: Why are you complaining about us killing the insane druids in the middle of the cursed woods set in a land of eternal darkness while we are hunting a psychotic necromancer who is attempting to obtain what is essentially one big pile of negative energy formed into a probably evil talking ball?

Male Half Elf Warlord: they could have been normal people

Conquest Paladin: normal people don't turn try to turn massive shadow drake skeletons into undead

Half Elf Warlord: You didn't know that.

Conquest Paladin: I ran in when they started casting magic on the damn thing. Anyways, now we get to sell the an endangered species's skeleton to a collector.

Female Gnome Sorcerer: Just kiss already

Conquest Paladin: yes, true love is two men with a pet robot (NPC Fighter) and their psychopathic adoptive daughter

Gnome:...

Me: That was an interview with a vampire reference. Without the robot.

 

Tremere/Basket's backstory

Spoiler

Me: Okay, has your character ever been in love

Basket: Maybe shallow love

Me: Been married

Basket: Never officially

Me: Committed a crime

Basket: Not as far as authorities would know

Me: Given that you said your character was like 50 when she became a vampire. Had a kid

Basket: yes, when she was very young. And it was something she immediately wanted to get rid of and not deal with, while feeling ashamed that it happened. Then tried to never think back on ever again

Me: Got it. So, you decided that your character would have the merit. Witch's Blood. So you came from a family of hedge witches who managed to enact magic through rituals

Basket: Yes, I imagine they did a lot of divination and all of that for rich clients, so they had some clients.

Me: What ethnic background is your character

Basket: Egyptian

Me: So, maybe Arabic?

Basket: It is a mix

Me: Well, you were born in the 20s, so that is coming off of the victorian period. Where there was a lot of occultism, theosophists, and all of that. Plus exoticism towards Egypt and the Middle East in general. So they would have made some money

Basket: I do have resources two despite splitting off from them and not having a normal job. I think my character left them at a young age though, and thought that they were kind of crazy

Me: You have high Occult with it as Alchemy and Academics Theology

Basket: I was thinking most of that as in game stuff rather than story-wise.

Me: You might have learned some of that after learning about vampires, especially since you are Tremere. Etiquette makes sense, crafts is your highest thing. Athletics was probably after vampirism

Basket: Definitely

Me: And you said you looked like you were in your thirties or forties. But with the timeline you would have been embraced when you were 50 since you were born in the 20s and embraced in the 70s

Basket: Right, we might need to change that

Me: The entire thing with you was that you started to get old and really didn't want that. So we can explain it easily. We said the Owner of Caesar's palace helped teach you magic and introduced you to the clan

Basket: Which would have been in the 60s or something given when Caesar's palace was made

Me: He was around during Carthage, he was probably doing something in around the same field back in the 50s or early 60s. I imagine you had a freak out while working on a model's accessories, then had a freak out as you saw a gray hair on your head

Basket: yeah, I would have had a panic attack, screamed at everyone to leave, throw things around the place, and just start staring into the mirror

In character stuff

Basket: No, please no God why? Maybe I should just slit my wrists right now. I don't want to get old.

Owner *appears behind her in the mirror*: Aging? Ah, I had worried that you were going to do something drastic.

Basket: I...ah, who are you?

Owner: The owner of this establishment, the women I had you working on were quite distressed. And I was worried myself. I half expected you to be cutting them all with knives and pouring their blood all over yourself. Like, well, Countess Elizabeth Bathory did not actually do that. Also it is terrible for the skin, creating more wrinkles. Unless you treat it properly.

Basket: Wait what? I'll do that. Tell me how and I will kill as many women as I need to stay young and beautiful. Show me, *takes him by the hands and kneels down* I'll do anything. My family, they have money. We know how to divine the future, I'll do anything please.

Owner: I just said that you have to treat it properly, not just kill random girls.

Basket: Then show me how to do it. I just want to stay young forever.

Owner: Hmm. *Presses finger on forehead and reverse two years of age*

Basket: *breaks down crying* Please, what do I have to do to stay like this?

Owner: You see, *sets her down in the chair in front of the mirror* I have two options for you. One is the Tzimisce, flesh crafters who mold and manipulate the body as if they were putty, and the Tremere who are far less focused on such things, though potentially capable of it. They are more...mage than the other, while there are Tzimisce who practice thaumaturgy

Basket: I get the feeling that the first one would end up with...fucked up sensibilities of beauty

Owner: Indeed. So, I will introduce you to both. *takes Basket on a car ride through Las Vegas to a body crafting fetish bar where there are people who have lopped off their own limbs and done other extensive body modification* Both clans have done rather bizarre things. I remember that the Tzimisce have some person who was not Mengele but a student of him I believe, he removed his genitals and became a woman. And the Tremere had...Goebbels...Himmler, one of the two. He joined the Sabbat as well. The Malkavians also turned Goring as a joke I believe.

Basket: What's a Malkavian

Owner: It is complicated.

*Basket sees Corine Marcon, a Tzimisce seamstress who is turning ghouls into fashionable clothing, using spider like fingers attached to vials of alchemical solutions that have flesh-thread drawn through them as she does her work*

Basket: *success on crafts to understand the clothing but botch on science to figure out what the ever loving fuck those chemicals are* I..ah..that is disturbing. I don't like it.

Owner: And now we go to the Tremere. *drive through more of Las Vegas until they see Sri Sansa, a Tremere hustler/charlaton/cult leader playing ball & cup games*

Basket: Really, a side-show

Owner: Yes

Basket: I could do this in my sleep

Owner: Come and see

Basket: *succeed awareness to tell that the Tremere is using actual magic* Okay, now I am interested. What would you bet on that?

Sri Sansa: That depends on you my good lady

Basket: Fifty bucks *in 1950s money*

Sri Sansa; Wonderful...*sees owner* A friend?

Owner: Yes, now...play

Basket: *can't keep up, but does get enough on awareness to figure out that he is using the path of conjuring to create and dissipate balls* Well, I can't win. But that is because you are cheating, I won't tell anyone if you show me how

Sri Sansa; This takes many years of study and I cannot-

Owner: Humor her. Because you are supposed to be in London, not Las Vegas

Sri Sansa: *takes them to a cafe and covers the side of the table so he can conjure and dissipate a ball in front of Basket*

Basket: I heard rumors about people being able to do that from my family, but none of them were actually able to. Not so impressive given that it is just a ball

Sri Sansa: I can make up to my body-weight in material. This just happens to be easier to make money without being notice.

Basket: Okay, teach me.

Sri Sansa: Such arts are solely for those of the House and Clan of Tremere.

Basket: Then let me join

Sri Sansa: It takes decades alone to be able to join the clan and longer to gain the power of thaumaturgy so

Basket: Well, you get immortality out of this so I'm in.

Sri Sansa: *terrified* You cannot possibly be serious

Owner: Why yes she is

Basket: I want immortality, and what you can do.

Owner: Do not worry my friend, I am sure you will have all you wish. See this man, he looks to be in his twenties perhaps. Now...he is over a hundred I believe. Born in the mid 18th cenntury

Basket; Well, that is exactly what I want

Sri Sansa: *attempts dominate against a willpower 10 person, fails* Forget

Me: You can feel something in your mind and push it out

Basket: ...Was that supposed to do something?

Owner: You see, despite his age, the man is merely at the rank of apprentice, though good at mind control and middling at conjuration. He was the Emissary of house Tremere in London to Mithras

Basket: I only know the god

Owner: Vampire, but same person. and this man should be there not here

Sri Sansa: Mithras fell into torpor in the Blitz, it is Queen Anne Bowesley who rules, and you do not want to piss off a Ventrue who has obfuscate

Basket: Uh hello, what is a ventrue

Sri Sansa: *To owner* Are you completely serious?

Owner: I owe a boon to House Tremere to give them a student, this is me paying that boon. Now, take us to the Las Vegas Chantry

*led through the city to a magic shop, Sri Sansa is recognized and let through so they go down to what is labeled as a travel agency where a rolled up regent is (there is a Chantry in Canon there but I couldn't find info on it)*

Regent: Sri Sansa, what are you doing in Las Ve *stares behind him* Oh no

Sri Sansa: You see..

Basket: We traveled from London to here so that we could speak with you, I want to be a member of your club *stares at the man's clothes* and I could definitely make you better clothing and dress up your shop

Regent: You cannot be serious

Basket: I am deadly serious

Owner: She is of a family of witches with ritual knowledge, and has a strong will. To the point where Sri Sansa can attest that he cannot dominate her

Regent: *attempts dominate, botches due to difficulty 10* I...ah..I

Basket: This guy is like a hundred and can't do anything to me, so I am clearly quite good.

owner: You can consider this to be me settling the boon I owe.

Basket: What is your name anyway?

Owner:Hmm, it has been a while since I used one aside from tax purposes. Hortensius shall work

Regent: *Calls Vienna in terror after another failed dominate*

Basket: This is going well.

Me: You have to take a plane to Italy then train and lots of cabs until you get to what seems to be a thousand year old building in Vienna

Basket: Well, I am getting fashion tips from the modern Italians from the start of the trip, and respect for ancient Austrians

Me: Okay, you see a semicircle made up of 7 men and women with robes. The one in the middle has a really round face, stringy hair, and almost clawlike nails

Etrius: You believe you are worthy of house and Clan Tremere?

Basket: Yes, and I can help you. For one, clothing. I know many things which would look better than that, even if you want it to stay as robes.

Hortensius: This is me paying my boon.

Etrius: Foolish girl *attempts dominate, botches. Uses telepathy to silently speak with Basket* walk away, now *repeats it out loud*

Basket: *Walks out with Hortensius* Well, that went well.

Hortensius: Yes, he can't deny you as I know he failed, and can use it against him. And if he makes a scene and kills you, well then that makes it clear something went wrong on his part and the others will use it against him if I don't. The only way to make it good for him is to accept you on some level, possibly with some controls to try and make it so he can assert his authority.

Basket is allowed in as an apprentice. spends 20 years learning magic from Hortensius as he keeps her somewhat under his protection until she is embraced and bound to the clan, learning Conjuration and Corruption along with studying kindred lore and theology, then embraced and sent to the Chicago Chantry where she continues to study and picks up weather control.

Basket: So...why are you ten

Nicolai: My sire was attacked by his cat familiar and frenzied, I died and he had to embrace me to allow me to survive. So, no cats in the chantry

Basket: I can understand that grudge

Nicolai: *introduces her to Erichtho the hundred year old teenage vampire, DuSable, Marhsall the Musician, Houdini, and Ublo-Satha the Gargoyle*

Basket: Anyways, you should not feel bad about yourself. Your size makes it so people have to acknowledge you and enter awkward positions to look at you

Nicolai: I would prefer to be an adult physically

Basket: *eventually ends up talking about how she gave up a child before becoming a vampire and feels bad about it*

Nicolai: *slightly altered from Canon* My parents sold me to mages, you are not the worst parent

Basket: Did they try to sacrifice you?

Nicolai: Initially my sire intended to use me as a servant, but I had magical potential so he wished to use me as an apprentice. Then...cat

Basket: Well, at least there's that they didn't send you to be food. *goes to use her connections as a way to find her daughter, botches it*

Basket: Wow, I just came off as terrible and lost all my friennds

Me: Roll conscience

Basket: *success*

Me: You realize that you were a terrible person, as you leave, you see DuSable

DuSable: Well...I left my family purely for power, so you aren't...the worst...I believe

Basket: I left my child for convenience, we are about the same

Me: as you enter the Chantry, Marshall is playing the blues and there are clouds inn the hall

Basket: Do I need to use weather control to keep from being rained on?

Me: No, there is no rain. Also, about your theology

Basket: I figured it would be useful

Me: Since you have it at three, I think you would know about different kindred religions

Basket: Okay

Me: So, big thing. The whole Church of Caine thing, do you believe it?

Basket: At least that he is the closest thing to a God vampires will probably have

Me: Well, you'd know about a few other things. There is the Church of Michael which worship a Methuselah as either a saint, actual archangel Michael, or Jesus. It depends

Basket: Uhuh

me: 7th and lower gen descendants of him have blood that make people more beautiful and help Nosferatu be less horrifying

Basket: The Nos must love that

Me: It varies, and some of the church of Michael want to kill all of the Nosferatu for being ugly, despite Michael himself making a Nosferatu a cornerstone of his city with full rights, nobility, and administrative controls to the point where he was basically Saint Peter for the group.

Basket: So...like real religions with them doing stuff and ignoring sections they don't like

Me: yes. There is also the Bahari, worshippers of Lilith. All worship Lilith but some see her as a direct opposition of god, a lot hate Caine, and there is the Path of Thorns which goes, You know what. Lilith and Caine basically made vampires together so both are important and deserving of respect. The others kind of hate those guys

Basket: Again, makes sense.

Me: There's also the Followers of Nikolas, a Nosferatu who was tortured to death over years by the Inquisition. His arm was severed, is still around, and actively weakens the beast of any who are touched by it. So some people are like, Maybe god doesn't totally hate us. Again, lots of division in the kindred who follow his teachings

Basket: Well, that is interesting.

Back to the story

Nicolai: If you wished, I could help you find your daughter

Basket: Thank you, she doesn't know who I am and would probably think I'm dead or something at this point.

They find her

Me: Do you want to roll? We decided earlier that you had a granddaughter by the time the game started

Basket: Sure

Me: *crit* Well

Basket: What?

Me: Well, you are from a family of hedge witches who need rituals. Your daughter is just straight up a sorcerer so linear magic, and your granddaughter is a baby in the 70s but is a true mage

Basket: Ancient Egyptian Eugenics project

Me: Nicolai comes back from his research, his contacts in the Tremere have confirmed that your daughter is a sorcerer who practices shapeshifting and healing.

Basket: Well, trying to avoid old age is in the blood then *takes a flight to anchorage which is currently in near eternal night and knocks on a middle class home's door*

Daughter: *Opens it and looks like she is in her 20s despite being in her 30s at least* Who are you?

Basket: Your mother

Daughter: Is this a Technocracy thing?

Basket: No *knows about it in character due to being Tremere*

Daughter: Oh, well that' s a relief, I don't have to kill you like the werewolves knocking at the door. *Lets her in, Basket sees a nanny by a baby girl*

Basket: So, I am your mother. I decided to try and look for you since I started feeling guilty, then all my friends left me and I felt worse about all of this. So this is just me dealing with my guilt

Daughter: Wow, you are an asshole

Basket: I know, well. It seems you've done well for yourself. This is not me trying to get money. I was actually going to give you records of our family history. So, you are from a line of witches

Daughter: Makes sense

Basket: yes, so. *looks around at the crying baby* I am so relieved I didn't have to deal with that

Daughter: Wow

Basket: Yes, and you did a number on my body. Anyways, if you ever need help from the family, I am sure they will do so

Me: *background roll crit and more rolls* Her adoptive parents are filthy rich

Daughter: I Donn't really need it

Basket: So what was that about werewolves?

Daughter; They hate magic practitioners

Basket: Yes, they are savages

Daughter: That aren't their own

Basket: Still savage animals.

Daughter: And think I am messing with a leyline or something. My husband is the sheriff so we have plenty of guns and silver bullets for when they come by. As for money, aside from family, I am a healer and can change people's body. I can make people think I am a saint if I wanted to.

Basket: I could get some help for you, anyways maybe you should use your powers less

Daughter: I don't do it that often, and have like a dozen faces for that.

Basket: Still

Daughter; Naomi

Basket; What?

Daughter: Your granddaughter

basket: *Holds baby, succeeds awareness to tell she is a true mage* I am definitely going to ask for help. This child has more power than both of us combined

Daughter: I guessed that before she was born.

Husband: *comes in, Inuit man who has 4 app, 5 str and dex, 4 sta*

Basket: And did well for yourself with getting a husband. is he anything

Me: *rolls 66* I'm not going to say demon descended so no

Daughter: he is a man who is incredibly good with guns

Basket: Apparently, anyways we really should look into family history more. Maybe he is part wolf

Husband: I am not like those other guys who fucked the goddamn wolves.

Daughter: I would hate to have wolf DNA in me

Basket: Oh yeah, we might need to check your genetic father.

Daughter: Please don't say that you fucked a werewolf

Basket: I was very drunnk, but didn't feel any fur. So it might have been one of the hybrids who don't change

Daughter: That would still mean wolf DNA in me

Me: Do you want to roll?

Basket: Yes

Me: 87

Basket: He might have been one of their relatives

Me: *rolls Children of Gaia*

Basket: Those are the more pacifist ones, it might be a different group attacking. And it might be over the baby

Me: If you call Nicolai and say your grandchild is a mage, I'm pretty sure the Tremere will fight tooth and claw over a mage baby to have in their pocket

Basket: I do

Nicolai: If there is a wolf relative wearing lupine pelts and holding a magic wand, run and just have the entire place destroyed

Me: Would you be friends with anyone in the chantry. Houdini would eventually run away?

Basket: I probably respect Houdini but we don't talk and just keep out of the other's business. DuSable we are both terrible people and acknowledge it but aren't friends. Erichtho I envy. So it is probably just teacher-student with Nicolai

Me: You could be friends with the Gargoyle

Basket: Well that is just sad

Me: Maybe she taught you how to run and jump?

Basket: Yeah, I am just tripping all over myself and I have to say "I spend all day indoors

Me: Then she just stops flying and starts helping you.

 

Lasombra/Guiseppi's flashback

Spoiler

Me: Okay, so do you want a memory first, or the time immediately after your embrace

Guiseppi: Memory

Me: Okay, you have an decoder nature demeanor competitor mob lawyer. You are always called Junior, your father is Matteo but the memories you get are not clear on if you are Matteo Junior or something else, and you don't remember your last name. And you are in Boston. You and your cousin run a law firm that almost exclusively works for members of the family (mob), which also includes hiding/destroying evidence and bodies, and providing alibis. Other members of the family work there as well along with associates such as your friends Ramirus Cho and Nestor who are not related to the family other than by association. There are trophies from fencing competitions along with your degrees on the opposite wall of your bed, you grew up attending a martial arts studio ran by a Korean family that has worked for yours in the past and was set up with the building. You wake up in an expensive brownstone house. Is there a man or woman in bed you? Multiple of one, both?

Guiseppi: I plan on magus being bi so a woman

Me: *rolls* there is a 9 out of 10 woman in bed with you. As you wake up, somewhat hung over, you relax, stretch, take note of the cocaine and other drugs in your house. More than enough for just yourself as there are times where you are expected to entertain others.

Junior (Past Guiseppi): I will make some coffee and food for the woman, I want to be nice since she is a 9

Me: You are pretty sure she is a model, you are happy about the fact that she is uninjured as you know that there are members of your adoptive family who you've had to clean up after due to accidentally killing someone in bed.

Junior: When she wakes up I will sit by the bed and offer her the food

Model: Oh god my head hurts, it reminds me of the cemetery party, I hit my head so hard back then

Me: You remember that your adoptive cousin Adreina has a habit of throwing parties in cemeteries which are full of drugs and debauchery

Junior: Well I hope this is much better, I know about those parties

Model: This is more my speed

Me: As you move around the house, you see a note on the calendar. Leonard's Return From Vietnam, Barbeque. Leonard Ghiberti is one of your adoptive cousins. You are not sure how this works as your dad says that Leonard's dad is his cousin despite the Ghiberti's being quite clearly African, the same goes with the Dunsirns who are Scottish. Your uncle Raul Ghiberti runs an underground clinic where he makes a lot of drugs for the mob. Your dad Matteo runs a lot of different bars. Uncle Olly is just straight up a fixer who deals with problems with violence. And aunt Morgana is an accountant as far as you know. Your history is weird as your dad only ever came home at night, and in the day it was people who worked for him, or other members of the family that took care of you, but you know that he cares. You spent a lot of time with your cousins growing up. The question is, what is it that you do for the barbeque

Junior: I host it I guess

Me: Okay, you know that lots of different members of the family and their associates will be coming. The family has a habit of eating mystery meat. Roll int+Investigation

Junior: *4 succcesses*

Me: Mystery meat is people, you have eaten it

Junior: And it tastes like chicken

Me: Pork, the question is do you enjoy it?

Junior: I don't, but I still have it prepared as it is expected

Me: As it is. You get a call from another member of the family reminding you of the party, and saying your usual services should not be needed, but they will give recompense if your days off are intruded upon. So, when you start the party there are a bunch of people, mostly those who work for the family, but some actual members. Andreina is one of the first to arrive with her husband and toddler daughter. She is incredibly pale and looks tired, you have not seen her actually sleep in years. Just have several naps throughout the day and seems functional yet tired.

Junior: Drugs?

Me: You know that she took a lot of them with you when you were in law school and had a lot of parties back then. Her father, Uncle Olly is sitting in a deck chair and relaxing. In the entire time you've known him, he has not aged a day. His wife is gray in the hair, has stress lines, and doesn't look well, but seems happy to see her granddaughter playing.

Junior: I wonder if he drank from the holy grail

Me: You remember your Uncle Olly telling you a story when you were young about it where a bunch of maybe Eastern European knights fought the knights templar for the holy grail with the aid of some weird German wizard.

Junior; Huh, cool.

Me: A car rolls up, Leonard Ghiberti comes out, still wearing a military jacket. He is tall and broad, very jacked. The driver is your korean-american friend Ramirus Cho, he is incredibly pretty. He is involved in driving the cars for bodies and the actual clean up and disposal while you are more focused on finding all of the evidence. Nestor exits the back with Leonard, saying "hey guys, we're here." but he looks very stressed. He is more focused on mixing the chemical compounds and preparing all of the stuff needed for getting rid of a body. He is a doctor and kind of weird. He describes himself as a "Catholic for my mother, Muslim for my father Hispanic Fillipino" and he is also very pretty.

Junior: That is kind of weird.

Me: Yes, he is very open with you about the fact that he doesn't believe in either religion and goes through the motions in his very weird household while mediating between said parents. Despite acting like a ditz, he has multiple doctorates

Junior: What does Andreina do then?

Me: She is more focused on laundering money, finances and intimidating people into deals while you are more of the guy who goes to court as a defense attorney. All of you guys have been involved in roughing people up and destroying stuff, but not murder.

Me: Leonard is hugging people, patting them on the back, and all of that. You see that almost everyone is eating and taking drugs, Olly and Andreina only do the first.

Junior: I sit down with Leonard and ask him how he's doing

Leonard: Glad to be back, Vietnam was weird. I kept seeing crazy shit at night. Like people without limbs who were fighting, or limbs that were moving on their own. Also people did weird shit, like keep necklaces of fingers and ears while they were decomposing. I get trophies, but you'll get an infection.

Junior: That is bizarre

Leonard: Makes me think about the old stories of old man Cho

Me: You know that Old Man Cho, the guy who originally owned the studio. Came to America in the 1920s as an elderly man with his grandchildren and there were stories about how he was some kind of martial artist demon hunter

Junior: Maybe it was weird martial arts stuff.

Me: As a man with over 6 dice in melee, you have been able to do stuff like take out a guy's eye while cutting him in several other places at high speeds.

Leonard: Maybe

Ramirus: Hey guys, *puts his arms on either guy* I've heard some stuff. You know about Japan right, they drive on a different side of the road. Well, They came up with this thing called drift racing. Now, you kind of need seats to be placed on the other side for that to work, but that means imports. Expensive imported cars. We could set up a drag circuit, and constantly be moving cars. Selling them after the races while filling them up with drugs to move product. Always changing license plates, and different cars being used to make it harder for cops to identify them

Junior: That does sound like a good idea

Ramirus; Okay, i have it all lined up, we can make some good money on top of the rest of our good shit. Now, *brings out LSD* have fun, don't take too many of them okay?

Junior: Got it, I'm gonna to over to Nestor and ask why he is so down

Nestor: Oh, uh. Well, you know the parties we like to go to

Junior: I got back from one and lucky, so yea

Nestor: Well, I got good shit. Heroine, great shit.

Junior: Was it a bad batch

Nestor: No, it was more the needle

Junior: What do you mean

Nestor: Well, someone used the needle before me without telling me. I wasn't feeling great, got some blood work done at Ghiberti's dad, and now I'm taking some pills under the counter

Junior: Oh no, did you get AIDS?

Nestor: HIV now, but it could get worse if the pills don't work. And either way I'm screwed

Junior: What do you mean?

Nestor: Well, if my parents find out they'll think I got it a different way, I'm stuck on medicine for the rest of my life, and it can fuck up any family I try to have. So...yeah I'm screwed

Junior: Oh...ooooh oh crap they'll get the wrong message and probably think a lot of things about it that are wrong

Nestor: Yeah

Junior: Well...maybe things will get better (is the 1970s) at least it isn't the 50s

Nestor: They'd kill me

Junior: Possibly...you know uncle Ollie has never aged

Nestor: Maybe they have the holy grail

Junior: He did talk about that a long time ago, if I ever get the chance I'll ask him if there is a way to help

*head over to Andreina*

Junior: Are you okay? I haven't ever seen you sleep, and you keep pulling all nighters

Andreina: It is the damn RICO act, people are always trying to pin members of the family so everything's on overdrive to make sure we don't go the way of Al Capone. Then there was that shit over at the club where a guy died in the fight club and that weirdo said Deus Vult to your dad like a lunatic. Some of the family are in their boltholes since they are worried that something is going on.

Junior: Could I take over some for you? I don't think you are doing well. At this rate you should be hallucinating

Me: You see her twitch, head tilting a bit as if she is trying to hear something, but avoiding doing anything as she tried to keep looking at you in the eye

Junior: Out of character, does she have auspex?

Me: Eeeeh, that'll come up. But in-character, you would not be surprised if she is trying to avoid looking at floating bubble animals playing music

Andreina: that might help

Junior: Spend some time with your kid and calm down. *heads over to Olly* I have some questions

Olly: What's going on?

Junior: Andreina said there was something going on with dad?

Olly: Oh that. Well, you know how it is. Everybody goes to confessionals and those are supposed to be sacred, but some priests don't follow that. Or an altar boy or somebody else overhears and snitches. He's worried that something like that happened and some fanatics are stalking the family. He's lying low to make sure things cool off.

Junior: Well, that isn't good.

Olly: It isn't

Junior: Well, at least Leonard is back *passes alertness to see a car sitting on the street that has a priest and a young boy* Umm.

Olly: What?

Junior: Car

Olly: Shiiit, *FBI cars start pulling up* Tell the waiters to hide the drugs

*Drugs and guns are put away, Junior follows Olly inside to call people and warn that the FBI are about to make arrests*

Olly: We're fucked so fucked *keeps calling people who he says are asleep and telling servants to move them out of where they will be&

Junior: What, is everybody high off their asses?

Olly: Coming off of shit that makes them crash okay, including your dad. Agh, um. If things go bad, go to your uncle Andreas's house. there is a ratty old coat there, put it in the goodwill. That is a code.

Me: You can never remember your meetings with uncle Andreas clearly, but always have a sense of fear, revulsion, and violation*

Junior: I really hope it doesn't come to that

Me: The FBI say they have a warrent

Junior: I open the door after Olly puts his weapons away

Me: The FBI agent walks in, cuffs Olly and then his eyes go glassy as he says. "If any harm comes to this messenger, a reckoning will come. The peace has been breached, and if anything starts, then your empire in this world and the next shall crumble."

Junior: What the fuck is happening?

Olly: Don't do anything stupid

Junior: *runs back into the yard* I need to do something stupid. Andreina, the FBI arrested your dad and said weird shit *repeats the lines*

Andreina: *has her husband take their child and head home* Bad shit is happening, we need to make sure everybody was warned and follow that cop. I know people that could help, but none of them are awake right now.

Group follows the cops to an abandoned house in the woods where the mob tends to dump bodies. Olly is forced in at gunpoint

Junior: Fuck, your dad is going to be tortured to death in there

Leonard: So guns blazing?

Ramirus: We could set it on fire and make them all run out. *everyone stares*

Junior: Maybe a little less escalation

*lots of looking through binoculars and trying to figure out what is going on inside without getting close*

Junior: I don't know what to do. If they are actually doing cop stuff then he'll get bail and have a trial, but they might just kill him.

Andreina: Well. *goes into van and opens a suitcase with vials of blood* I know you guys have questioned how dad doesn't age. This *holds up a vial* is the Holy Grail shit, and a kind of cure for HIV so0

Me: And Nestor instantly drinks it

Junior: That is not a good idea

Andreina: I think that isn't the one that can cause pustules and loss of hair.

Junior: Why did you have it then?

Andreina: Because I'm only allowed to have this stuff for myself and I had to go to other sources for it

Junior: Can you just say what is going on?

Andreina: Well, our family has been enemies with another family for about 500 years. Most of that has been over an ancient tablet about a supposedly magical way to become a god. That hasn't ever actually worked since the only example of anyone following the instructions led to the Great Fire of London

Junior: Wait what, you mean this is actually holy grail stuff?

Andreina: Other people have that, I think that other family, the Camarilla. And...there was this whole thing involving the True Cross or a fragment of it where it was in Jerusalem, the city was sacked by crusaders, it got stolen from the monks who were protecting it, and members of that family chased after a crusader who was trying to take it to a king. A guy got stabbed with it but he lived.

Everyone: Actual Holy Grail shit

Andreina: Basically yes. The guys doing this, the Children of Isaac, were involved with the Giovanni but were fucked by us, so the agreement between families did not apply to them, and the Camarilla tends to use them against us while we keep trying to kill them.

*Ramirus takes another vial*

Junior: Is this how neither of our dads age?

Andreina: Also yes. I had to get information about other factions and send that to different ones to get this since...well Ramirus has cancer and Nestor has HIV

Junior: *does not drink the blood* I am not dying so I am ingesting this stuff. Someone needs to stay here and watch the safehowse.

Me: Leonard is already making a ghillie suit

Junior: Be ready to take care of them

Andreina: *tilting head again as if listening to someone* We have time

Junior: Out of Character, what is with her

Me: Oh, she is a medium, and has auspex

Junior: mediums are a thing

Me: Yeah, it is a merit.

Junior: Then we drive...to uncle Ghiberti.

Me: Night falls. You enter an alley and walk down to a basement door and knock. It opens and you see a tall, lean black man in a suit. This is your uncle Raul Ghiberti. He is in a secondary clinic and drug lab of his

Junior: Uncle, Olly got taken by the FBI and they are talking about weird shit.

Raul: Well...Andreas might kill Olly just to be sure, so this is not good

Junior: That's...horrible. What do we do

Raul: I'm not sure what to do. The FBI are working with the Inquisition so

Me: And there is a knock on the door

Junior: I check it

Me: There is a dark haired woman with eerily pale skin standing outside.

Junior: Uh, Uncle do you know the woman on the other side?

Raul: *Checks* Crap, *opens door* What are you-

Woman: You need to run, they know of where you are-

Me: And a gunshot echoes with blinding light as her arm gets shot off.

Junior: WHAT THE FUCK

Me; Raul drags her and the arm in. It looks burnt as if a massive incindieray round was used, she is trying to reattach it.

Junior: How many ghouls and vampires are there in this backstory

Me: The woman and Raul are vampires, Andreina and her father are ghouls. Welcome to the Giovanni insanity

They escape into the sewers and exit only to see the car that has the priest and young Sullivan Dane

Junior: They followed us?

Me: The woman jumps into the car with them and they go screaming off into the distance while you guys get into your van

Junior: Okay, so. We need to head over to the safehowse again. *They get there* Andreina, who do you know that can help?

Me: She gets out her big 70s phone and calls someone. Andreina tells you that Aunt Morgana's face was cut off by the inquisition but she escaped them due to the woman who helped you earlier.

Junior: OH FUCK these guys are sadists

Me: Then you hear laughing and a guy who looks like a rotting corpse in a cowboy outfit appears

screams

Junior OOC: Would Guiseppi remember this guy in hindsight as a Nosferatu

Me: He is actually rotting, so Samedi

Junior: So, the Baron is real given that zombies are a thing

Raul and Samedi: Yes he exists, and is a vampire

Junior; Wait, vampires?

Andreina: Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, Mages, Fairies, Mummies are kind of weird. With the werewolves there are a bunch of hillbillies around which we made a truce with. Which is why we aren't being ripped apart right now.

Samedi: Now, we had a deal then. I want him *points at Nestor*

Junior: Do I have to kill you?

Samedi: You'll have a hard time, and I'm offering him immortality

Junior and Nestor: *stare*

Andreina: I have limited options and the family weren't going to let him enter the family. Especially with HIV. My pool of options are really small and the blood doesn't really remove the disease.

Junior: I don't think Nestor wants to be a zombie

Andreina: None of the others would accept him, they don't want to drink his blood.

An agreement is made for the Samedi to obfuscate into the house to see what is going on, he confirms that while being interrogated and saying nothing, Olly is not being tortured.

Junior: So, I'm going to prepare a legal suit.

Me: That morning, you wake up with Nestor having cleaned everything in the house, he does not look like he has slept and tells you that blood is fucking amazing

Junior: I am happy that I did not drink the stuffy

Me: When you go to your door to leave, you see the young boy. Sullivan Danne

Junior: Oh God he keep showing up

Me: You are going to be in shit if he shows up as a ghost since you murdered him

Junior OOC: That is possible, fuck.

Me: Nestor, Ramirus, and Andreina are vomiting and trying to scramble away. Leonard puts them in the basement

Junior: True Faith

Me: Yup

Junior: I'm not sure how to get out

Me: Leonard asks if you can get to the garage while inside

They hop in the car and peel out to make the church think everyone escaped and Junior goes to court, he had rolled to get a lot of evidence and witnesses to back him up and making subterfuge+wits rolls to come up with lies on the spot and twist information to make the mobsters look nice. Then succeeded the roll to recognize that the prosecutor had true faith and was implying that everything could be dropped if Olly put his hand on a specific bible and testified

Junior: You cannot make someone testify against themself

*lots of evidence being argued against and shot down*

Me: They bring in an armory of weapons that he had

Junior: Are any of these actually illegal?

Me: No, though they are being used as evidence of him plotting something

Junior: Damn

Me; Then they bring in drugs and go bags full of money, you know that Uncle Olly never actually touched drugs himself

Junior: *brings in implication that the drugs were planted and gets the jury to think so. court is closed for that session*

Me: They take Olly to the jail, then the cop starts spasming and convulsing. your father, Uncle, and Aunt all enter the room while the man stands up and speaks in a New York accent

Olly: Junior, Reginald. Reginald, Junior. Junior, Reginald is a ghost who works for the family.

It is explained that no one thinks Olly will get out of this alive and that even if he gets a not-guilty decree, Andreas is likely to kill him. Reginald suggests that everyone skips town as fast as possible

Junior and his father enter Andreas's house, with the latter disctracting the vampire while Junior takes a ratty coat and puts it in the goodwill. he can see the ghost while this happens, who explains that it is an object tied to him and without it, Andreas can't track everyone so then they'll have a chance to run away. The Aunts and Uncles then burn down a building full of evidence while someone else tries to break out Olly, but he sits there

During all of these drives, Junior sees monstrously huge dogs chasing after his car

Junior: Olly, I'm pretty sure we are going to die

Olly: Yeah, the Children of Isaac tried to flip me last night

Leonard: Um, my dad's ex has been called to the stand

Junior: Is that bad?

Leonard: She is a sociologist who studies the mafia

Junior: Fuck

*the Inquisition allied cops bring in photo evidence of crimes and a witness, but the witness had been ghouled by the Giovanni to say what they want*

Junior: *manages difficult rolls to have people involved in the photos testify that there is a different context to them*

Inquisition: *uses true faith to compel Olly to testify against himself*

Junior: Fuck fuck fuck, that thing is an artifact. is there a way to avoid swearing on it?

Me: Italian families often have a family bible

Junior: *uses charisma+expression on judge to get the Bible replaced with Olly's family bible*

Me: You see that the family name on the Bible is Putanesca, you then realize that Olly has been using his wife's surname since his actual surname is Of the Whore

Junior: I do not blame him. *manages to get a not-guilty verdict and walk out of the court house* Do you think Andreas is going to kill you?

Olly: Yes, and because of all of this shit, he might try it on you, especially if he learns what you did

Junior: Yeah...fuck

The others come in a van to pick him up and try to drive out of town, but they see the dogs who attempt to slam into the car, then a flying Nosferatu and a bunch of bikers

Biker Woman: *point sat Junior* we just want him. The others, well they have their choices. Come here otherwise your face is gone.

Nosferatu: *punches car while The Sabbat create tentacle shadows inside the driver's seat, causing the two Giovanni by blood to get get killed via impact as they crash.*

Me: The Nosferatu drags Ramirus out and you see that her face is more alligator than human, she bites into him and is draining blood as he screams, he yells at you to run. The zombie guy appears, unobfuscating while on a horse, he throws a lasso that gets Nestor and drags him out, causing him to lose flesh as the asphalt scrapes against him. As the last drop of blood leaves him, the Nosferatu gives Ramirus blood and you see his skin melt off. She points at you and says "and now you."

Junior: I'm fucked.

Me: And then The Sabbat drag you out and everything goes black. You are in a vast black room with a door made of water

Junior: I try to open it

Me: Your hand passes through and you see a tanned Mediterranean man. he looks at you. "You'll do."

Junior: What is this?

Man/Montano: You are being embraced into Clan Lasombra. Unfortunately, your sire is one likely to attempt to strip you of all your memories to break you down and turn you into his tool. I...however, can make it so you lose your memories for now, but have the chance to regain them. As your sire will be unable to destroy what is no tthere

Junior: So I'm turning into a vampire

Montano: Correct

Junior: I"ll take that offer *opens door*

Me: And now you have the option to get more memories as the game goes on

Guiseppi: I had expected for my sire to destroy my life

Me: Your sire is not a normal Lasombra

Spoiler: Part 2

Me: So, you have no memory of who you are, and are stuck in a coffin full of rats and living shadows. You eventually claw your way out of it only to find yourself in a bigger box. That continues again and again until you break a lock and end up with water pouring in. As you swim out, you eventually breach out in the Saint Laurence and Ottawa rivers. Then a bush hook gets you around the arm and drag you onto the boardwalk.

Lasombra: Can I recognize where I am

Me: Not yet. There is a short haired woman who is incredibly pale, grey-blue eyes, near white hair. She is wearing leather pants and a vest covered in chains. A mime or clown looking guy with a blank porcelain mask, he has a cape and there are big pink skulls on his knees and shoulders. A very muscular tanned woman with brown hair who has really torn up clothing. A woman with dreadlocks who is just wearing pants and a massive amount of scars and tattoos. A one eyed Japanese guy in a suit who is holding a baton and katana, and finally an Italian man with an overcoat who is holding a cane.

Sire Neroni: Do you remember anything child?

Lasombra: No, who are you guys, where am I, who am I?

Neroni: Good, I do not need to deprogram you. My child, you are Guiseppi Col Angelo. We are the True Faith, those who walk in God's beautiful night and fight against the beguiling light of Satan and all those who would corrupt the truth. The Catholic Church and their masters in the Giovanni, Lasombra, and Satan himself. We are the fighters for a better world, who shall dismantle the evils of capitalism and create true socialism unlike the corrupted Chinese, Cubans, and Russians with the Atheism brought about by the Jesuits under their master Satan

Guiseppi OOC: Do I remember enough to know that none of that sounds right

Me: Yes.

Guiseppi: I'm going to guess that you will kill me if I don't follow you

Biker Woman: Yes

Neroni: *takes out a detonator and puts it in Guiseppi's hand, forces him to press the button* We are going to have a wonderful time *a Catholic Church blows up in the background*

*Guiseppi is taken to a Calvinist church which has been decommissioned and is now full of hobos and terrified nuns*

Me: The tattooed woman goes over to the nuns, rips one of their arms off, and then somehow puts it on one of the others while preventing the first from dying of bloodloss. There are huge dogs which have been twisted into hideous shapes covered in bone spikes which the muscular one starts petting and training, the biker is painting on a canvas with blood and offal mixed in with normal paint, the Mime is just sitting, and your sire is giving a speech about how the Pope is an agent of satan, which the Japanese guy is listing to with rapt attention.

Guiseppi: I don't do anything since I'm worried about something bad happening if I mess up

Me: That's probably correct. Eventually, the biker who is painting will talk. "I am Julia Meyer, oldest of our pact and the Ductus. I am the secular leader while your Sire, Fredo Neroni is our Priest the two of us are about 2000. The angry one is from the 1880s, we picked her up in the Indian wars. The mime is Germaine, he will be in charge of you for the most part. We got him out of a home for troubled boys in the Dust Bowl. Kenzo is from Japan, we got him out of Korea during the 50s. Valerie was made in the 60s.

Guiseppi: And we are...terrorist vampires

Julia: Yes, now. You are going to be learning magic, because that's what Fredo thinks you should do

Me: You notice that the tattooed one, Valerie, throws a bone at a young albino girl who starts gnawing on it. You aren't sure what the bone is from.

Guiseppi OOC: Palladia?

Me: Yes, the reason she can make guns and assassinate people is because she was raised by terrorists.

Guiseppi: *is unsure who to talk to and what to do, so the pack has the mime take him over to the hobos*

Germaine the Mime: *holds up a hobo*

Guiseppi: So we eat flesh?

Germaine: *Mimes biting, takes off part of his mask, and feeds on a hobo*

Me: The hobo promptly starts hallucinating and screaming in terror.

Guiseppi: I drink from one of the hobos

Me: Germaine keeps you from draining them dry and has you go amongst the hobos

Guiseppi OOC: So they have a herd of hobos they abuse

Me: And nuns, because your sire hates Catholics. Germaine then brings you to the basement, hopping over and disengaging traps. You see a grate which seems to have a flamethrower underneath it. Eventually he gets to a steel door to a side room, opens it up, slaps on a sticker which says "Hi I'm Guiseppi" and then hits it a few times as if saying, "You can fit so many vampires in here."

Guiseppi: So we all sleep here?

Germaine: *points at the tag which says Guiseppi*

Guiseppi: Well, I get my own room

Germaine: *Shows him a coffin full of spikes, and another full of pillows*

Guisseppi: I think I prefer the pillows

Germaine: *picks up the one full of spikes and tosses it out of the room, then takes Guiseppi to a library*

Me: Okay, do you have linguistics

Guiseppi: Well italian

Me: Do you have linguistics

Guiseppi: *looks* no I don't

Me: Correct, the other you has linguistics for latin and Italian, but vampire you doesn't. So, Germaine pulls out a lot of books all of which are in German, French, Latin, or Italian. and points at them

Guiseppi: I try to read, then look at him.

Me: He holds up a finger, gets a book full of just math, and tries to see if you know math

Guiseppi: Do I know math?

Me: You only got Academics after Modius started teaching you in game, so roll int

Guiseppi: *2 successes*

Me: You remember how to do math, Germaine seems relieved, then he starts translating books into English as fast as possible since he might get killed if you don't learn magic.

Guiseppi: Thank you Germaine

Me: Germaine takes you out, puts you behind him on a motorcycle and drives through Montreal, you then end up deep inside of a freaky S&M club full of meathooks, people who are lopping off their own limbs, and other weird stuff which does not seem sane though it is consensual. As you get deeper, you see other vampires. A lot of them are topless, also tattooed and scarred like Valerie.

Guiseppi: I do not enjoy it.

Me: germaine shows you a box deep inside fo the vampiric part of the club, unlocks it, and opens it. Revealing a quadriplegic creature that is rotting, has its eyes sewn shut, and is screaming bloody murder.

Germaine: *points at Samedi torso, himself, shakes head to say he did not do this, then points back at it, then Guiseppi, and makes the neck slice movement*

Guiseppi: If I fuck up, this will happen to me

Germaine: *Nods and shows Guiseppi where vampires are pulling frostbitten humans out of freezers and eating them*

Me: So, pretty much every night is your sire trying to teach you Potence and Obtenebration, talking about his conspiracy theories, then beating you when you don't do well enough. Germaine stitches you up and translates more books for you, takes you out to show you how to hunt down people. He is upset as you never seem to figure. out how to ride a motorcycle, so he ends up showing you parkour since you have Athletics.

Guiseppi: I probably enjoy that.

Me: He also helps you with swords, which you seem to have an instinctive memory of how to use as both versions of you had melee 3

Guiseppi: So he is probably happy with that

Me: Yes, so. You end up involved in lots of crimes where you are part of the group involved in terrorist acts, your sire is clearly unhinged.

Guiseppi OOC: Of all the Malkavians I have met, my sire out-malkavians them

Me: Yes. Do you try to interact with any of them much

Guiseppi OOC: No.

Me: Well, you will notice that Kenzo and Valerie seem to believe all of the crazy, the muscular woman tries to avoid the pack at all times, Germaine just hangs around and is the one who generally makes sure the herd is not just dying constantly from hunger and disease. Julia spends a lot of time making artworks and you notice that she can do the same flesh sculpting thing

Guiseppi: I'll try to talk with her since she is the leader. "So, what is with my sire?"

Julia: He was an Italian Calvinist and friends with John Frederic Denison Maurice, the founder of Christian Socialism. Then he was turned into a vampire by a Catholic Lasombra. He didn't take it well.

Guiseppi: Okay

Me: You see that the hobos around her seem to be drained of all their energy without her having fed from them. She is painting right now, and you feel the same as when she uses Dread Gaze on you

Guiseppi: Oh God

Me: That is 6th level Presence, her version allows her to use imbue presence abilities into artwork. And she has fleshcrafting so she can turn people into artwork.

Guiseppi: It keeps getting worse, and that sounds broken.

Me: So, what is your first big interaction with Palladia? You see that the only one who feeds her actual food is Germaine

Guiseppi: I'm not sure what age she is, and she is kind of feral, so I go to the grocery store to buy fruits and veggies

Me: So, you and Germaine mug a bunch of people for money, go to a store with a list for lots of chemicals, chains, rope, and food for the herd and palladia. You make sure to get that stuff. When you come back to the church, your sire is ranting

Neroni: And so the Catholic Church used their infernal powers to curse the potatoes of Ireland, making it so you could not eat them, and they were unable to be sold. Thus, the Irish blamed the English Protestants, and so grew a long hatred which would lead to the troubles. And so, we must go to England and Ireland to bomb the Catholic Churches so that the souls of the Irish led astray might know salvasion

Guiseppi: Wait he is doing this in the supermarket?

Me: No, the church.

Guiseppi: Okay, that is slightly better. I ignore that and go to the kitchen to cook

Me: Do you have cooking

Guiseppi: Is there a cooking skill?

Me: Everything is a skill, including Blood Preparation and Cooking. Germaine has both. The one thing you miss about The Sabbat is the blood prepared by him where he put stuff in it, or cooked food for the hobos which made them taste better

Guiseppi: I need to learn that

Me: You see that the buff woman is cooking food for the dogs, it is basically a casserole of fruits, vegetables, chicken, and cornflakes. The dogs eat better than the hobos do when it isn't Germaine cooking.

Guiseppi: I cook corn on the cob and give one to Palladia

Me: She looks confused

Guiseppi: I mime biting it

Me: She starts trying to suck blood out of it, fails, then starts gnawing.

Guiseppi: Huh, later I go to Julia and ask her about Palladia. What is she?

Julia: She is a revenant

Guiseppi: And they eat people?

Julia: Yes and no, we just have lots of bodies around. Revenants are people who are born ghouls

Me: So, she explains that they picked Palladia up around the time that they killed the old Archbishop who turned out to be an Infernalist. You are eventually dragged to the current Archbishop since you have been around for over a year and not put through Creation Rites, there is another topless vampire woman.

Guiseppi: Why?

Me: This is canon to Montreal. It is weird. The woman looks at you, shrugs, and walks away. An older Mediterranean man nods and introduces himself as Tobias Smith of Clan Lasombra a servant of the Archbishop Carolina Valez.

Guiseppi: Okay, so everyone is a Lasombra

Tobias: What has your sire told you?

Guiseppi: He says a lot of stuff about infernalism

Neroni: Because the lot of you are infernalists

Tobias: No Neroni, we just killed one for being an Infernalist.

Neroni: Says a filthy infernalist *stalks off*

Tobias: Just because you teach him of mysticism does not mean you are exempt from teaching of the clan. *turns to Guiseppi* What has he told you of the Lasombra

Guiseppi: Not a lot

Me: he just explains everything about the Lasombra that you know now. Also that the clan tends to regulate Diablerie, where if someone is not up to snuff, they will allow another member who has proven themself to Diablerize another. Sometimes they keep members from eating those outside the clan as well since they control it.

Guiseppi: So that is why my sire is 12th generation

Tobias: Yes, because he is rather insane. He is a skilled Mystic, which is why he has not been diablerized yet.

Guiseppi: Okay.

Me: This guy is on the path of Power and the Inner Voice, so you actually agree with him on morality and learn that from him. Also your points in etiquette and politics as he tries to make sure you act like a Lasombra

Tobias: Can you identify who is a Lasombra

Guiseppi: Um..

Tobias: *points at Julia* What clan is she?

Guiseppi: Lasombra

Tobias: NO! She is a Toreador. *points at Kenzo*

Guiseppi: Lasombra?

Tobias: Ventrue

Guiseppi: But Germaine is a Lasombra

Tobias: He is a Malkavian

Guiseppi: But he is so calm and chill, are we sure my sire isn't the Malkavian

Tobias: I am sure, *points at Muscular woman* her?

Guiseppi: Gangrel.

Tobias: Good, Kenzo

Guiseppi: Lasombra...Brujah?

Tobias: He is ventrue

Guiseppi: Wow

Tobias: Valerie

Guiseppi:...Lasombra since she gets along with my sire?

Tobias: She is Tzimisce.

Guiseppi: Please teach me.

Me: He does. Your days are a mix of studying magic, terrorism, learning from Tobias about the Lasombra, beatings from your sire, and trying to teach Palladia English. You eventually figure out that your group really isn't supposed to have a Grimaldi and that they essentially stole her during the death of the old Archbishop and made it seem like he had eaten her for food. You learn about most of The Sabbat that live in the city

Guiseppi: I guess all of that makes sense.

Me: Then on one of the trips out for groceries with Palladia in a bag. Germaine drives out of the city to a hill with a tree on it. A man with long hair and a sweater is standing there. He nods as Germaine stops the motorcycle

Guiseppi: So, what's going on?

Germaine: *Pats Guiseppi on the back, walks up to the man*

The Man, Valois Sang: I will make it believable. *Stakes Germaine*

Guiseppi: What did you just do? Why?

Valois Sang: He has agreed to help the two of you leave. Staking him makes it seem like he was attacked and you fled

Guiseppi: Oh

Valois Sang: Can you tell me of the packs and their structures?

Guiseppi: Yes

Valois: Well, that is your entrance into the camarilla. Get in the van

Guiseppi: So, what now?

Valois: Well, you need to leave Canada, obviously.

Guiseppi: Yeah

Valois: Do you know how to drive?

Guiseppi: No

Valois: Well...I am going to need you to write down everything you know. Then you will be put in a cargo container with the girl. It will send you to Gary Indiana, there is a Prince there who is an ally of House Tremere. You will be fed on the ship.

Guiseppi: Well. I guess I'm free.

Guiseppi OOC: Oh god, I think Palladia is just like Nezuko tied up in a bag at this point

Me: She is a feral assassin

Guiseppi OOC: I'm not sure how I got all my money then

Me: Modius has business contacts who have people they don't like or are bothering them, he sets up assassination jobs and sends you on them, you get a cut and he gets rivals out and favors from others

Guiseppi OOC: That works

 

Another vampire session, due to me getting the schedule wrong (time difference) Basket was not present

Spoiler

Me: Okay, we left off with you guys driving. I think Michael was at the wheel

Guiseppi: Because he is oddly good

Me: Everyone is way calmer with him at the wheel, Zula keeps looking back to make sure no one is following you guys.

Guiseppi: Well, we need to find some place to live low

Me: What is everyone's blood at? And do you need to heal?

*Guiseppi heals from damage previously taken and goes through his ghouls, realizing that he needs 8bp to get them back to their full blood pool as well as himself*

Me: Bruce, do you feed the crow?

Bruce: Does he need it?

Me: He is currently a normal crow unable to use supernatural powers. How many would you let him have?

Bruce: How many can he have?

Me: His top is like 5

Bruce: I'll give him two, how does he feed?

Me: Unless you stop him he is just digging into your vein, you could just cut yourself and let it drip instead

Bruce: That's fine

Guiseppi: So where do we lay low?

Zula: *secret assamite NPC pretending to be a Toreador* Well, there is the Casinoo

Guiseppi: No

Zula: The hospital run by Dr. Banks, the malkavian you met. But that isn't exactly laying low either

Guiseppi: Right, so who else is there? Were can we feed

Zula: How hungry are you guys?

*Basket is down 4, Bruce down 3, Guiseppi needs a lot due to his ghouls*

Zula: My friend Mel has her mortal family, but I don't want you guys killing them. So that is out. There is the Korean lady which...yeah we shouldn't do that.

Guiseppi: Why not?

Zula: Reasons, anyways, other than them. Well the Thinblood and Cacophony guy work for Dr. Banks along with the Korean woman. So that just leaves the Russian Lasombra

Guiseppi: NOPE

Zula: What?

Guiseppi: I am not on good relations with my clan, they kind of hate my bloodline also since I am descended from Montano

Zula: So is he, the guy is an Anarch also, not a Sabbat

Guiseppi: Sorry, every time I hear Lasombra I think Sabbat

Zula: Uhuh

Guiseppi: Let's go there, what does he have?

Zula: A news organization, The Times of Northwest Indiana.

Me: You guys come up to what looks like a completely normal news office. Like, the front of what every one looks like in a movie or TV show.

Guiseppi: Something is wrong

Me: Roll awarness

Guiseppi: *success*

Me: The shadows on it are too strong, they aren't being dispelled by the light like it should

Guiseppi: So shadow play

Me: Roll occult

Guiseppi: *success*

Me: This is straight up abyss mysticism to strengthen the shadows.

Guiseppi: We enter

Me: There are normal people there the receptionist stares at the incredibly tall hoodlum who hasn't washed his hair, black guy in a blood and soot stained suit, angry mixed woman, Italian man with a cane, arabic mechanic woman, albino woman, and the shirtless black guy with bullet holes in his shirt *checks* he had enough blood to heal from the shotgun blast to the chest

Bruce: So he isn't bleeding everywhere

Me: It has been a day, he would have died if he hadn't been able to heal. The receptionist stares

Guiseppi: I am a member of the family, I am hear to meet your boss.

Me: She stares at the Italian man, you remember that Zula said this guy was Russian

Guiseppi: We are distantly related

Me: The receptionist looks at the floor and notices the lack of reflection in the marble, then makes a call. You are let through to the upper offices

Zula: Don't mention Russia

Guiseppi: Why?

Me: You see that the office has a man in a ww1 Russian officer's uniform. He has a perfect mustache that twists upwards at the side, he is sitting in a chair while two ghouls make sure his hair and mustache are flawless, trimming and waxing them with gel. Giuseppi, you know that some lasombra get a bit crazy due to not having reflections or any other way to actually see themselves in anything other than a painting or sculpture

Bruce: Weird

Me: Everyone roll alertness

Both vampire players fail but the ghouls don't

Me: Palladia is retching

Bruce: She's puking, poor girl

Me: As you look back and down, you see the man's reflection in the marble. It looks like a desiccated and bullethole ridden zombie is sitting in the chair. Some Lasombra do have reflections, but they look like what they would be if their bodies were still rotting. Those tend to react even worse. This is some Dorian Gray shit

Bruce: Ew

Guiseppi: I introduce myself

Theseus the Elder Lasombra: And your sire?

Guiseppi: We are not on speaking tersm

Theseus: Good, he is insane. I fought him in the Second World War, you can imagine which side he was on

Guiseppi: The Nazis

Bruce: Wow

Theseus: Yes, he wanted to bomb the Vatican and was making ghouls out of members of the Axis

Me: Bruce, you do not have context for this other than the fact that Guiseppi's sire apparently was on the definitely bad side of WW2

Theseus: And what has brought you through my door?

Guiseppi: We'd like to lay low here for a while

Theseus: Why is that?

Guiseppi: We are hiding from Juggler

Theseus: And I should let you stay...because?

Bruce: He is making fake blood

Me: It isn't fake blood, it is vampire blood in pill form to ghoul people

Bruce: Oh right

Guiseppi: Juggler is making blood pills to make an army

Theseus: And? They are ghouls *gestures to his ghouls*

Guiseppi: No one should have that much power this quickly?

Theseus: *gestures to various awards his news company has*

Guiseppi: And it could be a masquerade breach

Theseus: *further gestures to framed articles where Kindred used code phrases or only thinly veiled their condition while talking about their stories or politics* I do not care much for the masquerade and believe in close ties between Ghoul and Domitor, along with the Kine. One day we must live side by side

Guiseppi: Ummmm

Me: There is a very major thing which you are not mentioning, like your evidence

Guiseppi: Well, we are trying to get Modius to call a blood hunt on Juggler

Theseus: Why are you attempting that on one of my fellow Anarchs?

Guiseppi: Well, all the stuff before

Me: You are forgetting the most major thing

Guiseppi: Oh, and he is working with the Sabbat, we have proof. *shows video*

Theseus: starts going through his files on Juggler, making calls, and so on You said you wanted to use my company to hide for the next few days

Guiseppi: Yes

Theseus: picks up notebook and Minor boon, made due and completed same date with 4 day usage of the building's basement as a haven.

Bruce: So he owes us a boon

Me: No, you guys asked to use his company as a hiding place, which is asking for a boon, but you then gave him proof of something to act on which gives him an excuse to act against Juggler and take his stuff. So he is considering it settled

Bruce: So we can use it as a vampire haven

Me: Yes

Bruce: Indefinitely

Guiseppi: No, for 4 days

Me: Four nights, indefinitely would be a major boon, not a minor one.

Theseus: And no eating my employees, I need them to have their blood inside their veins so they can work

Guiseppi: Noted, So we need to feed.

Bruce: Yeah, where are we going

Me: I am going to just assume that Basket feeds elsewhere then stays in the basement planning something

Guiseppi: I look at Zula, where is a good place to feed

Zula: :Strip clubs, bars, the casino

Guiseppi: So, strip club

Me: So, you are having Michael, who has the mind of a child, drive you to a strip club. He asks you what those are while driving, Zula stares at you

Guiseppi: Aaah

Zula: What is his derangement?

Guiseppi: He has the mind of a child

Zula: And you are taking him to a strip club

Guiseppi: It will be fine

Zula: Well, my job is now babysitting

Me: Claudette is smiling evilly

Guiseppi: I ignore her

Me: So, you get to the strip club. You need 8 blood points to get what you need

Bruce: Do we know about blood points?

Me: You guys know about the amount of blood you need to feel full in any time more or less and can guess things like how much you can get from the average person. 8 is about twice as much as there is in a human body

Guiseppi: How much can I take out of a person?

Me: Two safely, three if you are okay with them passing out and probably needing medical attention

Guiseppi: Well, I am going to go in and seduce some women. What would that be?

Me: Subterfuge + manipulation

Guiseppi: Would lying as a specialty help?

Me: You are lying about what you are doing and the fact that you can't get it up so yes. What about you Bruce, how are you feeding?

Bruce: I think I'll sit it out?

Me: So, you are in the car while everyone else goes into the strip club, you have no idea how Michael feeds since Zula is with him the entire time and everyone else is busy looking for dates

Guiseppi: *gets 5 successes*

Me: You are able to find 5 women given that you said that Guiseppi preferred them

Guiseppi: Yes, we go to a private room

Me: So, everyone sees an Italian man in a business suit, an albino woman who is similarly dressed, a giant shirtless African man, and five women all enter a room and don't come out for a long time

Bruce: Oh, an Orgy

Me: That is what everyone thinks. So, Guiseppi has to feed on all of these women, biting all of them in succession before any of them know what is going on so there isn't anyone screaming bloody murder, then just keep alternating while his ghouls are feeding off of him

Guiseppi: Oh god

Me: Yes, this is what ghoul management is like when you are on a time limit and do everything in strip clubs. You are draining more than there is in a human body, roll self control

Guiseppi: I don't have self control

Me: I'm gonna say conviction since not losing yourself to the beast is one of the path tenets for you

Guiseppi: *needs to use willpower to succeed*

Me: Okay, you manage to not drain all the blood out of one of these women's femoral arteries then you realize that they were all high and you are seeing the walls bleed. Instinct now

Guiseppi: *manages to ignore the fact that everything is bleeding*

Me: And you walk out

Guiseppi: Like a chad

Me: Like some kind of depraved Italian businessman who keeps a pair of very different people to have orgies with.

Guiseppi: I love playing a bard-like guy this time around

Me: What is your relationship with your Revenant, Palladia?

Guiseppi: I want to say good friends

Me: Who is involved in the blood orgies and seduction of women so she can feed you and help her addiction to vitae

Guiseppi:...Yes, this does sound horrible.

Me: Zula gives you what you aren't sure is a look of being impressed or disgusted while you all get in. then asks what you guys are planning

Guiseppi: Well, we need to get more evidence

Me: If you want to do that, roll investigate

They have over 10 between Guiseppi, Bruce, and the ghouls. Guiseppi botched stealth but his revenant Palladia managed to cover for him

Me: You guys find three different bikers who seem to be vampires. One is with a bunch of ghouled members of a biker gang, another is driving a hearse and you see Evelyn inside, she seems unhappy

Bruce: Evelyn

Me: The black woman sired by Juggler

Guiseppi: I thought she was making drugs in Gary

Me: You remember that she was involved in the initial creation of the pills *it has been a long time since that plot point, no one else seems take notes or the like*

Guiseppi: We should follow that one

Me: Okay, you can also guess that these guys are allies or descended from Juggler

Guiseppi: Yeah

Me: And do you do anything?

Guiseppi: Just follow?

Me: he is heading to a warehouse

Group: Follow

Me: He is meeting a bunch of bikers outside the warehouse

Group: *Still watching, not acting*

Me: The bikers pull out a coffin from the back. Evelyn and the other Brujah are arguing. Do you do anything?

Bruce: Well, there are a lot of them now, so this is probably a bad idea. Maybe we can send the crow

Guiseppi: That didn't end well last time

Me: Last time there were guards at there post, now there are bikers watching two vampires argue about something

They eventually send Palladia (she has high stealth) and the ghouled crow

Me: There is a hole in the coffin. would the crow try to enter it?

Guiseppi: Well, that is a Bruce question

Bruce: Yes

Me: He sees what looks like a vampire in torpor, there is a stake in their heart

Bruce: and that kills vampires?

Me: paralyzes, we've gone over this and you can see it in pretty much anything about VTM

Guiseppi: Well that's not good

Me: It is almost like Juggler probably has the same plan as you, diablerie. Do you guys do anything?

Guiseppi: Well, this really isn't safe

Me: There are distracted people arguing and a crow inside the coffin

Bruce: What could we do?

Me: Well, you could run away, you could remove the stake

Bruce: Would the vampire wake up?

Me: Yes

Bruce: The crow would probably remove the stake

Me: Okay *rolls on blood pool* so, the crow sees the corpse twist and shudder

Bruce: Oh no, it will explode

Me: No, what you see is *puts in image of a xenomorph queen with wings* giant monster burst out of the coffin, the crow is alive

Guiseppi: A xenomorph?

Me: You were in the Sabbat in a pack with a Tzimisce, you can easily recognize this as a Tzimisce in Zulo form. The two Brujah take one look at the giant monster and celerity out

Guiseppi: Well we are going to die

Bruce: This is bad

Me: You can see the monster take one of the people, vicissitude them down flat like a pancake as it slams a hand on his head, then lift it up and drop the entire thing in its gullet. Are you doing anything?

Both: No

Me: You hear screams of anguish and terror as it starts eating all the bikers, then it lets out an eardrum piercing shriek that Bruce understands due to animalism. "Come to me creatures of the sky" and close to every bird in several miles starts coming in and tearing the people apart before flying into its mouth, except for yours Bruce

Bruce; Poor crow, he has to be terrified

Me: Yes, It sees you, and flies at you

Both: Don't do anything

Guiseppi: We are so dead

Me: The monster turns into a woman. She speaks in Russian

Guiseppi: Neither of us know Russian

Me: She speaks in italian

Guiseppi: I answer her

Me: Do you have Italian?

Guiseppi: I am italian

Me: Did you take linguistics?

Guiseppi: Damnit

Me: The woman seems increasingly irritated, then speaks in English. What year is it

Guiseppi: 1991

Tzimisce: So I have been in torpor for over 100 years. Who is the prince?

Guiseppi: This place doesn't have a prince

Tzimisce; And this is?

Guiseppi: Hammond

Both assume the woman is a Sabbat, I ask Bruce's player if he is going to show the Sabbat Ankh given to him by the Ravnos and he doesn't since he is scared about how she will react despite both assuming she is Sabbat

Tzimisce: What is the state of the Ordea League?

Both: We don't know what that is

Tzimisce: What is the state of Russia then?

Guiseppi: Well, they don't have Czars

Tzimisce: Why?

Guiseppi: There was a war towards the end of 1918

Tzimisce: About?

Guiseppi: An Archduke got killed and then there was a giant war which russia was involved in. So there was a civil war, the Czars were killed and they had a Soviet empire which Baba Yaga was not happy about. Now no one can enter the area.

Tzimisce:...I need to drink, where can I drink from someone who has been inebriated?

The group went to a bar and was surprised that an Elder vampire could just dominate drunk people to come over and be fed on

Me: Dominate, there is a reason a lot of vampires have it

Tzimisce: And the fire in Chicago? What of Prince maxwell?

Guiseppi: So that's how you got staked,

Tzimisce: Yes, a burning building fell on me

Guiseppi: Well, Lodin is the Prince now

Tzimisce: The side fling of Helena's Spartan childe? I need to kill a lot of people

Bruce: The cow is dead

Me: You were told that a malkavian did it

Bruce; I'm not sure if I should share that since on is here and she might get angry

Me: Michael was not around then and you can assume that she would not jump to the conclusion that the person in the party that removed the stake was the one who burned down Chicago

Bruce: The malkavian primogen and Lodin did it

Tzimisce; So I do need to kill people in Chicago

Guiseppi: So...what faction are you in?

Tzimisce; The Ordea League

Guiseppi: Which is not Sabbat

Tzimisce: No

Guiseppi: Okay, it is just that I assume Sabbat when there is a Tzimisce

Tzimisce: Says a Lasombra

Guiseppi: Fair

Tzimisce: I am Lioubov Sabina Konstantinova descendent of the Dracon, who removed the stake

Bruce: Me

Sabina: Yes, I owe you a lifeboon then.

Guiseppi: *mentions that they are fighting a guy named Juggler and that they are collecting evidence against him for a blood hunt*

Sabina: and then

Guiseppi: Bring him to Prince Modius in Gary *doesn't want to mention intended Diablerie*

Bruce; *Doesn't try to get the Elder to help them kill Juggler despite the two of them fumbling around and not being sure how to kill Juggler and insisting that they need to collect more evidence despite video proof of him associating with the sabbat, neither mention that Juggler was likely trying to Diablerize her because "We don't know how she will react" when they are already trying to get Juggler killed*

Me: Okay, are any of you going to continue talking to the Elder vampire

Both: We don't really have anything to talk to her about

Me: *stares* Okay, well, she is going to walk outside then and into the alleys

Guiseppi: You have a life boon, you can ask for pretty much anything

Me: Life boon sire not eternal servitude, it is not Wookiee rules. It is a service to be paid in the future

Guiseppi: Right

Me: Are you guys going to ask for anything

Bruce; I don't really know what to ask for

Me: Well, she is going to leave then

Guiseppi: So she is just going into Zulo form and make the wings

Me; No, she is going to jump up and be carried off by the wind like it is a skateboard

Guiseppi: What?

Me: Magic

Bruce: How will I know how to cash in the boon?

Sabina: Koldunism, I will know

Me: So, the elder vampire is flying off. Now believing that the reason she was in Torpor was Lodin

Guiseppi: That is going to end poorly

Me: are you guys calling your mentors?

Both: yes

Guiseppi: Um, a Tzimisce elder got taken out of torpor and is flying to Chicago, she said her name is Sabina

Modius: Oh, well I had thought she was dead. as did everyone

Guiseppi: She is like 7th generation so

Modius: She is 5th Generation

Guiseppi:....Oh no. Are you still sending me to Chicago in the future

Modius: Yes

Guiseppi: She talked about Helena, like Helen of Troy?

Modius: Also hes

Guiseppi: And Lodin?

Modius: Helen of Troy's Childe Eletria was the Prince of Veracruz and the lover of Lodin's Sire Datura. They were something of a trio, and Datura grew jealous of Lodin's closeness with Eletria, resulting in the Prince spiriting Lodin away to Chicago and...well everything that followed

Guiseppi: Oh,

Modius: So it is likely that two 5th Generation vampires might be fighting in Chicago soon

Guiseppi: That's even worse

Modius; Yes, the curse of Caine is that we cannot have normal relationships and everything turns into a telenovela due to immortality and supernatural power exacerbating that. I will need to call my sire?

Guiseppi: *connects the dots* That's Annabelle

Modius: Yes, her sire is not Eletria,

Guiseppi: But she is Descended from Helena...oh oh Anabelle must hate this

Modius: you can imagine that she is not entirely happy with her Prince being the former lover of her...aunt

Guiseppi: How do we survive this?

Modius: have Bruce hold onto that lifeboon, she won't kill you all if he has it, and Eletria currently has no reason to kill us

Guiseppi: But I don't have a life boon

Modius: It is considered poor form to murder all the allies of the person you owe

Guiseppi: And when was that tradition made?

Modius: It isn't one, it is just common sense

Guiseppi: and I guess she wasn't in torpor so long that she wouldn't know that

Modius: I am hanging up now

Me: *describinng how Ennnoia Is Caine's granddaughter, stepdaughter, cousin, and sister all at once due to the jumble of relationships, also Caine having been mind controlled by an old woman while trying to woo a younger one, resulting in staking and leaving out in the sun due to said mind control*

Bruce: Wow that is overcomplicated

Guiseppi: And Ravana is Ennoia's brother or something similar

Me: And also possibly a pairing, but whichever it was also resulted in someone's feelings being hurt, lots of cursing, and rival families trying to kill each other for thousands of years or having petty rivalries. Like I said, telenovela

 

Vampire now has people deciding to adopt children

and there is just a mass of attempted diablerie and fighting over the body

Spoiler: Basket's victory

Me: Okay, so, did anyone tell you about what happened last time?

Basket: Yes

Me: Would you be checking in with someone

Basket: Yes, hortensius

Hortensius: Hello Basket, are your people the ones who were involved with a Tzimisce Elder flying to Chicago

Basket: Wait what?

Hortensius: There is a Tzimisce wizard traumatizing the realm of spirits right now as she attempts to murder the Prince of Chicago

Basket: Can you explain more?

Hortensius: i am a bit busy with making sure that the adoptive child of one of my associates isn't just on the streets as an orphan with a few vampires making sure she doesn't starve to death

Basket: I...ah, I need to check in on my clan now. Thank you. *calls Nicolai*

Nicolai: You should not go to chicago

Basket: Why?

Nicolai: An ancient Tzimisce is currently trying to kill Lodin and has been creating lightning bolts to kill her enemeis

Basket: Isn't that a masquerade breach?

Nicolai: We are not arguing with her right now.

Basket: I see, so do you know anything about what is going on?

Nicolai: I would, but most of the spirits I could interrogate are screaming in terror

Basket: Well, that is bad. What do you know about her

Nicolai: She is Lioubov Sabina Konstantinova, *describes the clusterfuck which was Constantinople and the Tzimisce civil wars*

Basket: I...should we do something to stop her

Nicolai: *laughing* That will be difficult

Basket: What is my job then

Nicolai: Deal with Juggler and do not die, Lodin did announce a blood hunt, do with that as you like.

Basket: Is there any information you can give me?

Nicolai: The few cognizant spirits I can summon up have mentioned crows, I imagine it is the were ravens that have something to do with this.

Basket: Those are a thing

Nicolai: Yes, they often live in cities and are amusing. They explode if you embrace them, apparently they have some agreement with a sun spirit

Basket:That would be interesting to watch, please let me be there if you do that again

Nicolai: I will

basket: What else live in cities?

Nicolai: Were-spiders, they drink blood

Basket: Of course, that is troublesome

Nicolai: Yes, we sometimes need to hunt them for threatening the masquerade and making it look like we were involved. Now, avoid Chicago for now

Basket; and stay in this backwater

Nicolai: Yes *hangs up*

Guiseppi: *gets online*

Me: and I imagine that Guiseppi is walking in with the others right as that conversation finished, Bruce is somewhere else hiding

Basket: Did you people free a Tzimisce Methuselah, why would you do that

Guiseppi: We didn't know it was a Tzimisce at first

Basket; There are signs for this, and always check clan before awakening a vampire. Why didn't you do something sensible and diablerize them?

Me: They would not have had control of their bodies if they tried that

Guiseppi: It had seemed like a good idea at the time

Basket: Okay, why is it in Chicago?

Guiseppi: What were we supposed to do? Juggler's people had it so we thought he was going to diablerize her or drain her of blood for drugs

Basket: Tell it about Juggler or the Sabbat, send it here so it can see the video of who it would want to kill.

Guiseppi: We didn't know how she would react

Basket: And now it is at war with Chicago

Guiseppi: Well, we have a life boon from it, actually Bruce does

Basket; Where is he

Guiseppi: Digging a hole and hiding, I guess

Basket: So we don't have a life boon, he does and we don't know where he is

*lots of Basket going over what they could have done to benefit from the situation, all things that Guiseppi and Bruce didn't do. also joking that Guiseppi's revenant ghoul is an example of wife husbandry*

Basket: So now we need to look for Bruce

Me; You aren't finding him

Guiseppi: I can send Palladia out to get him

Me: She'll fail

Both: Why?

Me: Because his player said he was going to miss the game, we are not involving the character. I believe Guisseppi is topped up

Guiseppi: Yes

Basket: I am down like five so I will go out...ugh I never hunt. That is what I have a herd for, maybe I can find a rich man to go on a date on and feed on him. I am selling myself, but I need blood.

Me: Okay, the first noticeable thing outside is that there is a kid by an air ventilation unit over by the gas station, he is basically crawling in it

Basket:...I go over

Me: He comes out with a candy bar, then stares at you

Basket: What are you doing?

Child:..There is a hole in the wall by the candy

Basket: I see, and why are you here instead of home?

Child: It is my parents anniversary, they never get along

Basket: *goes in and buy's the kid candy and walks him home* What is it like when we get there

Me: It is a very large house, well decorated, when you get in with his key, you see that it is the same inside, with lots of expensive decorations, but the walls have clearly been continuously patched up due to shit being thrown around. You see an Arabic man and woman screaming at each other. The man is shaking jewelry in his hand while the woman shouts "Last year there were seven!"

Child: Anniversaries never end well

Basket: Hello, do you know that your child was outside, and what was he doing?

Man: Drugs like his sister

Basket: No, stealing

Woman: Then it doesn't matter,*shouting match continues along with accusations of the man cheating*

Woman: This freak is your mistress isn't she

Man: No, I only sleep around you with other men, never women, that would be cheating

Basket: They clearly don't care about their child, I will take him to his room, use Path of Corruption to make him go to sleep, then take a blood point

Me; He does not have much blood, but okay

Basket: They clearly hate each other, and they are rich. So. Path of Corruption, I push them murder each other

Me: Well *rolls* the woman takes a curling iron and starts to press it into her husband's face while he strangles her with a necklace roll conscience *she succeeds* they were going to eventually kill each other anyways.

Basket: And I take the sleeping child and walk back to the haven

Guiseppi: Why do you have a child?

Basket: He will be my cash cow in the future

Guiseppi: And you were complaining about Palladia

Me: Let's not go there

Basket: So, we could help the Tzimisce kill Lodin and be helpful to a new prince?

Guiseppi: I'm not sure how we could do that

Multiple occult successes to know about Tzmisce and Koldunism to try and figure out what magic Sabina knows, they figure that she has the Black Sea Kraina which means she can make her haven in water.

Me: Please remember that Juggler is trying to kill you guys right now

Guiseppi: Oh right

Basket; Yeah we should deal with that.

Me: There is a thump and then you see a Gargoyle climb out of the wall

Guiseppi: What the fuck?

Basket: Don't worry, this is Ublo-Satha, she is a sweetheart, that is why she wears the sweater I made her

*successes on investigation allow them to find where one of Juggler's descendants is having a street deal for guns*

Basket: Are they just breaking legs and stuff?

Guiseppi: We are more refined than that

Me: You are asking about who is buying and selling guns, and get a location in a large parking garage roll alertness

Guiseppi succeeds

Me: You see the same car that had the hunter in it drive by and head to that parking garage

Guiseppi: Oh fuck

Me: To the parking garage, not shooting you

Guiseppi: Somewhat better

Basket: So, what are we going to do

Guiseppi: Well I am going to lie

Me: Okay, what are you doing?

Guiseppi: Lying

Me: You are currently in a car, are you going to the building, are you going to walk in on the gun deal and talk to somebody, are you planning to murder everyone somehow?

Guiseppi: First we go into the building, and are like one floor below and looking up

Me: Given some of you have high perception I will say you guys can see one of Juggler' descendants, a biker with an American flag bandanna. he is with two other bikers and is talking to three Bloods, there is a thunk as they place a trunk on the ground and start talking about incendiary ammunition

Guiseppi: Oh fuck

Me: They continue, then there is the sound of something igniting as they talk about flamethrowers and napalm. The Bloods say that "Jackson will be pleased"

Guiseppi: FUCK, flamethrowers

Basket: This is really bad

Me: You then hear sirens and a man yell, FBI on the ground now

Guiseppi: Oh right, the hunter was from the FBI

Basket; Sounds more like a CIA thing

Me: Then police sirens, there is some gunfire and a police car drives down to you guys

Basket; This isn't good

Me: It the cop you threw Caltrops at

Basket; Oh, hello again

Detective Stephens: *looks at the group* Hello again, the Prince has sent people to deal with his enemeis

Me: then there is lots of screaming and gunfire and flames upstairs

Guiseppi: Are you going to deal with something?

Detective Stephens: Well, I saw you guys and was thinking about if you would help before I went in. Since, you know, I die from bullets

Guisseppi: We can as well

Basket: Can you deputize us

Detective Stephens: *stares*

Basket: Who am I kidding, I can make a better badge and outfit *uses conjuration to make outfits for the party*

Me: The Flag Brujah is walking down the ramp

Guiseppi: Crap

Flag Brujah: Well, hello there. Tell me, just what do you think you are doing?

Guisseppi: Well, we outnumber you and plan on stopping Juggler

Flag Brujah: Why exactly?

Guisseppi: actually, why are you helping Juggler and the Sabbat

Flag Brujah: You see, my grandsire has a certain way of thinking and I need to sway it.

Me: The cop is going to pull his gun, but the Flag Brujah's eyes turn gold and he can't seem to move

Basket: That does not seem like Dominate

Flag Brujah: No it isn't. You see,I have accepted Set into my heart, and so can you. *uses Serpentis 2 to strike Detective Stephens but the damage roll is just an absolute fail so the guy is just launched backwards*

Guiseppi: *focusing on the cop* he's alive, he has to be an absolute unit

Basket: What?

Flag Brujah: Set,

Basket; The Egyptian god

Flag Brujah: Correct, and a vampire

Basket: But, Cain would be his grandsire

Flag Brujah: No, Set is a god and has no relation to Caine

Basket: That doesn't make sense, and what does Set get out of all of this? Couldn't you work for the Camarilla

Flag Brujah: As I said, it is about my grandsire. Sabbat seems like a good gateway drug to eventually get to Set. As for the Camarilla, Set wants to destroy the laws and systems that govern us, free us, and destroy the world so our spirits may ascend

Basket: What? That sounds like Gnosticism, only like an insane anarchist version

Me: it is like an evil version of Gnosticism

Basket: Hey, you, you. Are you just an anarchist

Flag Brujah; I many ways yes

Basket: Okay, so what about Caine? God, and his curse

Flag Brujah: Caine is just a pasty and system by which the false God fools people like you into believing that you are cursed and need forgiveness

Basket: You are a heathen

Flag Brujah: What?

Guisseppi: God is dead and Caine killed him

Flag Brujah:...I have no idea what he just said

Basket I think it was a Nietzche reference, but take that back about Caine

Flag Brujah: You are deluding yourself

Basket: I use conjuration to strangle him

ME: I guess you could make razor wire, but that will take like 3 turns to do

Basket: Shit, I keep him talking while I do that

Me: Subterfuge+Manipulation vs Empathy+Perception

lots of arguments as they want to jump and use multiple willpower while I say they can wait and see the results first *I generally say people can only use willpower until after they have rolled and seen their initial successes first*

Basket: *lots of successes on subterfuge and crafting*

Me: So he takes *rolls soak* five damage and you guys have a surprise round.

NPC Caitiff Claudette goes first:

Me: You guys see Claudette tackle him to the ground and bury her face in his neck, biting down and draining blood

Guiseppi: Wait, she is a diablerist?

Basket; Oh no you don't *starts feeding on the Brujah

Guiseppi: No, no. I am the one who gets to commit Diablerie I use dark steel to get them away

Me: That is two bp then and two turns

Guiseppi: What

Me: From what I find, the tentacles themselves are 1bp and dark steel is another. Which means you need two rounds

Guiseppi: Just tentacles then *claudette dodges one and is barely grappled by the other, Basket is grappled*

Me: Okay, they are grappled and still on this guy feeding, it will be next turn when you can try and pull them away.

Guiseppi: No, no. I need to be the one to feed *tries to get in there but is stopped by NPC supposed Toread Zula* why? how can she stop me

Me: She has celerity and was holding.

Zula: Let them, *takes out bat*

Guiseppi: I NEED IT

Zula: *bops him in the head with the bat several times is prevented from blood bonding as the ghouls drag Guisseppi away*

Basket; Well, you can have a vendetta in the future

Guisseppi: Why is everyone a diablerist?

Basket: *uses corruption to cause Claudette to pause for a moment, giving her the opening to drain the last of the guy's blood. Her rolls made it so she lost a conscience and humanity, and had a demeanor change, but dropped to 10th generation. we decided that disciplines were gained based on a willpower roll to see how many dots they get, and she has 7 successes which turned into 2 Presence 2 Celerity 2 Potence and 1 serpentis* This is amazing

Guiseppi: Why? Why would you take it from me?

Basket: Because, I should have been a more powerful vampire, but I was only embraced into the 13th generation as my willpower was so strong that others resented me.

Guiseppi: *feeds on ghouls to heal*

Me: The gunfire stops and you see the FBI agent walk down, look at all of you and the skeleton that remains of the Brujah

Basket: Well, we are in cop uniforms

Me: he burned down the motel, remember

Basket: That really is more of a CIA thing

Agent Shepard: What in God's name happened here?

Basket: Religious war, he was a heathen so we killed him. Don't worry, we are good people

Me: all of you are covered in blood, Lasombra looks like a crazed lunatic, there is a Gargoyle Michael is looking around confused. there is a woman who clearly beat up Lasombra with a bat.

Lots of just them insisting they are good people without making arguments for it

Agent Shepard: *takes out a pipe bomb* give me one reason not to kill you all

Basket: I doubt that it would kill my friend

Guiseppi; I use dark steel

Me: 12 seconds to do it

Guiseppi: fuck

Basket: *succeeds subterfuge to keep him talking*

Guiseppi: *fails on tentacle grapple despite having 12 dice on it*

Me: and he throws the pipe mbom

Basket: well, I have super speed and am out of there

Guiseppi: Fuck

Me: You don't have to

Both: Why?

Me: Ublo-Satha just points at the thing and uses movement of the mind to make it stop inn place

Guiseppi: So he dodges, tries to throw it, and it just goes a millimeter before stopping

Me; Yes, and explodes in his face *rolls* he takes five damage, and Detective Stephens gets up, sucking in breath since he got punted by a Brujah and survived

Basket: he probably had a bulletproof or stab vest which would have helped, but his ribs are probably bruised and cracked

Me: Also yes, so he is looking around the FBI agent is screaming on the ground, he looks unsure about what to do

Guiseppi: I stab the FBI agent with my sword

Me: No roll needed, so. now you have a skeleton and dead FBI agent

Guiseppi: Did he have more pipe bombs?

Me: yes

Basket: We just need to put the skeleton on top of him and set off the bombs

Guiseppi: I tear him limb from limb with my sword

Us: What"

Guiseppi: then set off the bombs

Us:...

Me: Detective Stephens says you guys should go, he walks up and you can hear him saying that the biker guy was a terrorist who blew himself and the FBI agent up.

Basket: Well, that worked wonderfully

Me: And so, all of you are driving out. a diablerist, multiple attempted diablerist, and Michael who seems happy to be driving *rolls* and then a kid jumps onto your car

Both: is he dead

Me: No, there is a tall teenage boy, Damien, on your car, holding onto it

Both: Oh, no

Basket: I tell him to get off

Me: He gives you the finger

Basket: Rude

Guiseppi: Isn't he from Chicago

Me: you don't know that. Basket, you know that he is a member of Baby Chorus, Garwood's band

Basket: I ask what he's doing here and why he is violating the masquerade

Damien: Why are you framing Juggler for Lodin

Basket: Juggler, who is juggler

Damien: Don't give me that shit, I know about the blood hunt

Basket: Just calm down, if you Brujah can do that

Me: He punches through the glass and pulls Michael out

Basket:...who is driving?

Me: I am assuming that Dax the ghouls can take the wheel and just barely control it, Damien drops Michael who stumbled and falls onto the road

Basket: This is a serious problem damien

Me: Dax is putting on the brakes, Damien holds on

Basket: *gets out with the others* What exactly do you think is going on

Damien: Lodin is framing Juggler

Basket: We have evidence, the Lasombra over in the news station has a vieo

Damien: Lodin embraced some tech wizard to do shit like this for him, he hacked the NSA so this would be easy for him

Basket: *doesn't have politics and fails it* NSA some camera thing

Me: Damien stares in horror at your ignorance

Guiseppi: They are a government agency

Basket: DOn't they make rockets?

Guiseppi: That is NASA

Me: you know that hacking the NSA is a big deal

Basket: Why would we help the anarchs?

Damien: Because it is the right thing to do

Everyone: *burst out laughinng* No really

Damien: This is just Lodin making an excuse for his people to eat his enemies and throw people under the bus

Basket: That seems like a reason to help in the blood hunt. Why shouldn't we help Lodin in this case

Damien: The Camarilla killed a human family I lived with.

Basket: And?

Me: You see a car with a 60 or 70 something old man, Johann in. he is a vampire who used to be a film director, there is also a young boy who looks to be nine or so

Basket: What is with the Brujah and embracing children. I think Carthage and you guys making it was a myth

Damien: he's Brujah yeah, but it wasn't an anarch. it was Lodin's people

Basket: How about we have a philosophical discussion

Damien: I'm not one of Critias's weridos, I'm talking about what is right

basket: You are adorable, just stay calm if you think Brujah can do it

Guiseppi: Just talk

Basket: Yes, listen to the man with shadow tentacles. And the one we just killed and ate was badmouthing Caine, you know heresy

Damien: You are working with a Lasombra and are talking about eating vampires while worshipping Caine. That is all Sabbat stuff

Guiseppi: God is dead and Caine killed him, anyways, I am not a religious nut job I ran away from the Lasombra

Me: Everyone stares at you again

Basket; Just ignore that, I think he picked it up from a human philosopher

*more arguing*

Ublo-Satha just grabs Damien and flies him to a tall building while the people who drove him to the city try and go get him after Johann comments that Damien is not a good driver and how he is trying to teach him

we ended the session on XP, with Basket using what she had saved up to get her other in-clan disciplines and Guiseppi boosting willpower as he remembered that willpower was rolled when diablerie was involved*

Basket: I should adopt that child, maybe deal with his sister. Though I'd need to get someone to be a dad for him

Me; Befriend another vampire

Basket: too annoying, oh I have models. I'd have to ghoul one though

Guiseppi: The himbo

Basket: Yes, I am living vicariously through the child and making up for my previous actions with the child I gave up

Guiseppi: Do you have any idea what being touched by an arm of the abyss would go. I though it was like negative energy first and dissolved things, but they don't seem to do that

Me; I imagine it is like being touched by an octopus made of oil

Basket: Yeah, like oil is touching you but it is more firm and solid than it should be, and is disturbingly disconcerting

Me: can you all roll empathy+wits, also intelligence

both have a few successes

Me: You realize that Evelyn's last name is Stephens, and the guy you were talking to was named Detective Stephens and has been showing up in cities where she has been despite him being a Chicago cop. he is her brother and is just a normal human, not a ghoul given his lack of powers when that fight happened

Both: OHH that makes sense, we should pay him or make him a ghoul.

 

I've finished a Battletech Alpha Strike game for a campaign today and the list I had to fight against was just full of cheese and ham. Then again, given whom I was playing against has a pension of just ruining any game for everyone...

 

A hilariously failed attempt at Diablerie resulted in Guiseppi being in a Mobster+Biker homosexual romance

Spoiler

Me: Okay, so Bruce, what were you doing after running away to hide and think

Bruce: Mostly, I think I'd be going over how this month has been weird

Me: it has been like 4 days

Bruce: yeah, fighting the church, zombies, vampires, getting chokeslammed by the force of nature Ravnos guy

Me: Mmmhmm *rolls* you see some homeless people.

Bruce: I don't have money, but I'll say hi

*they have a mostly normal conversation*
Homeless Man: Beware,Monsters are among us

Bruce: I know, I am one.

Homeless Man: No, the wolves, the wolves are coming. They and the ravens, the rats in the sewers which rise up to cull us all

Bruce: What?

Homeless Man: Beware that which would destroy us all.

Other Homeless Man: Phil, hey Phil you are off of your meds *takes man away*

Bruce: Well, he has a friend

*Meanwhile with the others*

Basket: *filling out rituals sheet as the player had boosted thaumaturgy* And now I have ward against lupines since they were after my granddaughter

Guiseppi: So, we are heading back to the news

Lasombra Elder: Why did you send a child to us, we are not a daycare

Basket: I am his aunt, and I told the receptionist to call the police

Lasombra Elder: What is wrong with you people?

Basket: I am preparing ghouls it is best to train them early

*The Lasombra elder sends the kid over to the police and sighs*

Basket: we are probably tiring him out, I should see if my primogen can set things up so I can have fake documents about being related to the boy

Bruce: *walks in an asks what is going on*

Basket: *sets a circle of silver and does a ritual* can you pass this?

Bruce: Yeah *walks through*

Basket: Oh, you aren't a furry.

*They sleep for the day and Basket sees memories of the man she ate, with the Brujah's sire talking with him about how he doesn't trust the Sabbat and how she is asking them to gather info on the players, an alertness check lets her see landmarks to guess where the warehouse they are in is despite the Brujah's sire saying he was obfuscating a building*

Guiseppi: I will get out a handle and take one aggravated damage to summon shadow monsters

Me: Okay, everyone wakes up. They see Guiseppi go into a corner and light a fire while chanting in tongues

Basket: What are you doing?

Me: He grabs the fire

Basket: If you are suicidal, there are people that could eat you. Like me, or Bruce. We would love shadow magic

Me: The wall turns black as oily creatures peel their way off

Basket: Why do you have to do this Guiseppi?

Me: They are vanta-black abominations that are so dark it looks like reality has been delated

Guiseppi: I tell them to search for Juggler and his followers

Me: Okay, they grow wings and fly screeching out of the place

Basket: You could have used something more subtle

Guiseppi: They are made of shadows

Basket: And are horrifying abominations against god that are blacker than pitch. Now let's go get some food

Guiseppi: we can only drink blood

Basket:...I am not going to bother, you know what I meant.

Bruce: *tells them all about his encounter with homeless people*

Guiseppi: *fail roll*

Basket: *success*

Me: You remember that were rats and were-ravens are a thing. the wererats generally try to slaughter humanity as they believe their job is to cull their numbers. They tend to live in sewers or pretend to be homeless, and sometimes eat humans. So the homeless man might have escaped from them previously

Basket: Well, we are probably going to see some ecoterrorists. We should probably avoid oil rigs and the like

Me: You remember that one of the structures owned by Juggler's companies is an oil rig

Basket; GODDAMNIT, Bruce, show me where your homeless people were. We can feed on them

Guiseppi: No, I am going to the strip club. Palladia, Dax (his ghouls) go search for more information

Basket: *asks Ublo-Satha to look for the warehouse she saw*

Bruce: *botches animalism to ask for help* Help me ravens of the city

Ravens: Fuck you *fly off*

Bruce; *looks at his ghouled crow* can you talk to them? Is there a crow information network

Cairo: No, also, the were ravens hate me

Basket: Bruce, help me find the homeless man you met.

Guiseppi: *feeds in the strip club, nothing happens*

Bruce and Basket: *meet an attractive homeless youth who gives Basket a rose*

Basket; You will need to try harder *still starts trying to hire him* do you have any history of mental illness or violence

Young Pyromaniac: No

Me: Roll me academics+int along with per+empathy

Basket: *succeed both*

Me: He is a pyromanaic

Basket: *gives him her card, dominates him to sleep, then feeds* Well, this went well. I'm done

Bruce: Wait what?

Guiseppi: So, do the monsters come back to me

Me: We still have Bruce's feeding

Bruce: *jumps on hobo* I give him the succ

Me: This hobo is incredibly happy and moaning. "I didn't have to pay for it this time."

Basket: Do you know other Gangrel, there was a child one who fought us

Me: That was a Brujah

Basket; Oh right *fills in Bruce on what happened last session*

Me: Okay, where do you meet your monsters?

Guiseppi: In a warehouse

Me: One returns, its tentacles wrap around your fingers. You see the blonde Brujah disappearing and reappearing, entering obfuscate and using celerity to chase and attack them, he kicks one through a wall and then heel drop's the other. they try to flee but he pursues and only one survived. There were at least eight guys guarding the place where the vision starts. Basket, Ublo-Satha returns to you.

Ublo-Satha: The Brujah boy, Damien jumped off of a building to attack me. *shows broken fingers* this is abnormal

Basket:...He is really powerful.

Guiseppi: *Returns to them* I have seen the blonde Brujah, I believe he is the 9th generation. Let's go fight him

Basket: You found him

Guiseppi: I saw him, so I know about where he is

Basket: He has been obfuscating a buildingn

Guiseppi: Wait what?

Me: And your ghouls return. they explain that the other brujah you were looking for is at a bike shop with five people, but three seem to be employees

Guiseppi: And he was the one with guns, so they probably have less. And we should kill the 9th gen

Basket: No, the 11th.

Guiseppi: The 9th

Basket: Why?

Guiseppi: So I can diablerize him

Basket: You don't want to aim lower and you know, survive.

Guiseppi: We can vote on it

Ghouls: What is happening

Bruce; The 11th gen

Guiseppi: Really? Not the 9th

Bruce: That sounds easier

Me: I would like you guys to understand that selling large amounts of guns and incindiary weapons likely means that they have even more. The obfuscated warehouse likely has more guns and biker

Bruce; The 11th not the warehouse

Guiseppi: There were probably more people there

Me: Palladia stares at you, offended by the fact that you thought that would happen.

Guiseppi: Right, I forget that you would be able to search for other spies and fight them.

Basket: So, we have a werewolf problem. Does anyone need silver weapons?

Guiseppi: I have the vampire hunter's sword, it is silver

Me: OH RIGHT YOU DO, GOD

Guiseppi: What?

Me: Out of character, that would be a fetter so the ghost of the guy you killed would be around you. I need to check how long it takes for a ghost fo form

Guiseppi: Wait what? No, I thought it wasn't magic

Me: It wasn't it only is magic once the ghost is in it. and you haven no reason to think it is magic currently.

Basket: Okay, Bruce, silver brass knuckles?

Me: That is less effective than his claws, they already do aggravate

Basket; Nevermind. Well, I will make toxic gas *11 successes* The germans would be jealous. Palladia Can you throw a grenade, are you good with that kind of thing. We might meet werewolves so we'll need weapons like this


Me: She stares, pulls out one of her daggers, *rolls 6 successes on athletics* she throws the dagger, it hits one of the crane devices in the warehouse and bounces back to her, she catches the knife and then the hook as it swings back and then flips as it arcs, letting her land on another girder

Basket: You don't have to be a showoff

Guiseppi: She is a thrillseeker

Me: *Rolls 8 successes on acrobatics* she jumps and catches the hook with her foot, putting away the knife as she circe du Soleil's it and lands, looking at you with a "You think I'd have a problem throwing and fighting" expression

Basket: We are fighting werewolves

Guiseppi: She's just enjoy that

Me: she'd try to skin then and keep the pelts.

They drive to the bike shop, it is a bicycle shop rather than a motorcycle shop

Basket: Too bad, I'd steal a motorcycle, though I'd crash afterwards

Guiseppi: So

Me: It is a stormy night, but people are coming and going. it is on a normal street.

Guiseppi: What do we do?

Me: what do you guys do

Bruce; I'll need to leave soon

Basket: Well, wait we have done a lot of stuff lately

Me: Yes, on the news there is talk about a terrorist attack where they were giving gangs guns and blew up an FBI agent. It is a good thing that the news here is run by a Lasombra

Basket: We are making a lot of work for him, well, this will be another terrorist attack

Me: So, you guys are throwing the bomb?

Basket: Actually, that might be a bit extreme. Maybe we can create a blackout

Me: Well, there isn't really a good way to do that from outside unless you go to the power grid and fuck with a government building

Guiseppi: No. I can use Obtenebtration *fills 160meters with shadows that smother and kill people*

Me: So, what exactly do you think this power does?

Guiseppi: It makes things dark

Me: People lose two stamina dice and no one else would be able to see, just you. So. Every mortal civilian in there is dying since they'd have zero constitution. you hear muffled screams of terror, children are dying as they are swallowed by shadows as they are just leaving with their parents with their bikes fixed. Claudette is staring at you in horror, Basket, you need to roll conscience due to watching as a city block is consumed in horrible darkness

Basket: I only have one conscience

Me: Yes, you probably are horrified and feel your humanity drain just from being associated with this

basket: I am not a part of this, I am not a part of this

Guiseppi: What? Can we walk this back

Me: yes, you only think about enacting mass murder

Guiseppi: Okay.

Basket: maybe we can send someone in to turn off the circuit breaker or something

Me: Who are you sending in

Guiseppi: Palladia

Me: are you sure

Guiseppi: Yes

Me: So the albino hit woman with no social skills walks in

Guiseppi: OH FUCK

Me: *Rolls 10 and 9 on charisma* so she manages to somehow not fuck this up immediately and talks to the cashier, he leads her down, you don't see what happens *rolls self control* and she stabs him to death once they are alone and shoves his head into the circuit breaker. you see the lights go out

Guiseppi: I go in with Dax

Basket; I stay

Me: Claudette and Michael stay with Basket

Bruce: *stays*

Me: So, what are you doing?

Guiseppi: stealth mode *succeeds against mortals, not the 11th Gen Brujah*

Me: So. This guy knows that something is up and has super speed, he is checking the area and sees you. You now have a gun pointed against your head

Guiseppi: Wait what?

Me: He can see in the dark and knows that something is up given that his sire was attacked, as was the warehouse you guys freed the Cacophony vampire from and office building,. it was either he runs around and checks things out, or he escapes.

Guiseppi: Really?

Me: He is a Brujah, he has super speed. We've been over this

Guiseppi: Can't we roll initaitive

Me: Do you want to roll initiative?

Guiseppi: Yes *rolls for himself and the gouls*

11th Gen Bruha with high wits and blood boosted dex, plus 4 celerity.

Me: he goes first.

Guiseppi: Goddamnit

Me: So, he has a rifle pointed at your head, there is a ghoul next to him. you aren't sure where the other is

Bruce: I need to head to bed

Me: we can end it here

Guiseppi and Basket: *Trying to figure out how to get out of this*

Guiseppi: Wait, I look at him and use dominate

Me; Roll

Guiseppi: *1 success*

Me: You have a one word command

Guiseppi: agree

Me: What?

Guiseppi: I want him to agree with me

Me: That would depend upon what you are telling him. It is highly conditional and he won't just agree to anything.

Guiseppi: Drop

Me: You are the guy who was involved in multiple attacks upon his group and only have one success.

Guiseppi: This might be a long shot, but...masturbate

Basket: He is a vampire

Me: He is also of a lower generation, so that wouldn't have worked

Guiseppi: Fuck

Me: So, you can try to talk to him

Guiseppi: really?

Me: I will say that talking is a free action, especially as combat doesn't start until he shoots you in the face

Guiseppi: Wait wait wait, I want to help you

11th Gen Bruha: *raises eyebrow*

Guiseppi: Lodin is trying to frame Juggler with the NSA

Me:...The thing from last session was Damien saying that Lodin has a master hacker, so they could probably edit a video

Guiseppi: I mean, Lodin is framing Juggler as a Sabbat

11th Gen Brujah: What are you talking about

Guiseppi: The blood hunt

11th Gen Brujah: Not that, we both know what is going on

Guiseppi: What do you mean

11th Gen Brujah: You were the guy in the warehouse

Guiseppi: But Lodin is framing you

11th Gen Brujah: What was in the warehouse

Guiseppi: Vampires in bags to be drained

11th Gen Brujah: Yes, which is grounds for a blood hunt from the camarilla

Guiseppi: Well, the sabbat is a lie

11th Gen Brujah: No

Guiseppi: You don't know everything that is going on

11th Gen Brujah: Dude, I know that we have switched over to the sabbat

Basket; Tell him about the Followers of Set

Guiseppi: No Juggler isn't, he is being framed by the followers of set

Me:...roll bullshit

Guiseppi: 7 successes

11th Gen Brujah: 8 successes

Guiseppi: He is built for everything, how was I supposed to win

Me: Well, you gave him advance warning with that blackout. also, he is actually kind of terrible at actually fighting in melee. if you had the drop on him, you could have won easily. but you went in guns blazing after alerting him, and did so without other party members.

Guiseppi: I was kind of trying to make this my win

Me: and failed. so,

11th Gen Brujah: I know that you were just lying, except for that the Setites were involved. What is going on

Guiseppi: Your sire was working for them, and he was diablerized

11th Gen Brujah: By who?

Guiseppi: the craziest vampires around

11th Gen Brujah: Specifically who?

Guiseppi: The setites

11th Gen Brujah: We just went over that you were lying about what they were doing

Guiseppi: They were tying up loose ends

Me: That isn't how they work, Setites kill each other way less than a lot of the other clans, and once you convert, you are family.

11th Gen Brujah: Dude, you are saying that he was killed by the petites while being one

Guiseppi: Look, I can't exactly say who did it

11th Gen Brujah: And what were the Setites doing?

Guiseppi: Framing Juggler, I know that I got mind controlled by a Setite earlier

11th Gen Brujah: That was a Sabbat, a Serpent of Light, they hate the Setites

Guiseppi: Aaaaah

11th Gen Brujah: Look, there are four groups we are talking about now. Anarchs, which Juggler and I used to be. Sabbat, which you used to be, Juggler and I are, along with the SERPENT OF LIGHT, and the Setites which you are saying my sire joined. The Setiites hate the Serpents of Light and Sabbat. Now, there are the camarilla, which you are in, and pretty much everyone listed before hates.

Guiseppi:....I'm out of ideas

11th Gen Brujah: Look, I'm Sabbat. We both understand that

Guiseppi: Yes

11th Gen Brujah: Your sire is around, as is another sabbat pack that wants to tear up Chicago. That is a lot of sabbat packs trying to get the same area. Now, as a recent recruit, I can't just go and kill a bunch of other packs. Including Juggler's new one. So, let's help each other

Guiseppi: I'm listening

11th Gen Brujah: Look, I help you, you help me. You get to eat your sire, he is like 10th generation now. Sound good? In return, you help me pick off the other packs so the one I am in will be the top dog.

Guiseppi: And why are you doing this?

11th Gen Brujah: I'll let you in on a secret. there is a person in Chicago who is actually sabbat

Guiseppi: My sire

11th Gen Brujah: Oh for fuck's sake, not him. The Brujah Primogen Tyler is one of the first anarchs and sabbat, one of the packs wants to use this to destabilize Chicago. which is a stupid fucking idea since there is a 7th gen Toreador with weird powers, a 5th Gen Brujah philosopher king who can punt people into the earth's crust, a Muslim Warlord Nosferatu with magic and the ability to obfuscate half the sewer system, and one of the original Tremere vampires. One 6th Generation Brujah who got it through diablerie and has failed to kill Hardestadt multiple times isn't going to work that great. maybe that would cause paranoia, but it isn't going to let us roll in and kick the asses of all of those ridiculous fucks

Guiseppi: Right, that doesn't really make all that much sesne

11th Gen Brujah: So, we get rid of Juggler, your sire, and Tyler. You get to eat your sire, I eat Tyler. both of us win

Guiseppi: That sounds right

11th Gen Brujah: Okay *cuts wrist* suck, don't worry, I will as well

Guiseppi: Same time

11th Gen Brujah: Sure

Me: And roll blood bond intensity

Guiseppi: I am going to hate this *7* fuck\

Me: So, you are willing to kill for this guy and put your life in harms way and he *rolls a 10*

Guiseppi: What?

Me: He is holding onto you tightly and doesn't want to let go. he will fucking die for you and is patting you on the back, rubbing it

Guiseppi: Did he just fall in love with me

Me: He rolled a 10

Guiseppi: Did I get a servant?

Me: Well, he is a yandere for you now

Guiseppi: This worked out, I just need to not drink his blood for a month

Me: A yandere with presence. so he might mind control you into drinking more

Guiseppi: FUCK

Me: So, twilight in this time period is the crime-drama between two men whose blood burns and bubbles for the first time in their unlives

 

It has been a long time, so

Guiseppi is now Kokoro, a sword obsessed Toreador. the players now know that the vampire who has been helping Tremere/Basket is actually Mekhet, one of the Antediluvians who is less well known, the Tzimisce they freed, Sabina, is a 4th Gen Methuselah who decided to conquer the Great Lakes area

She has been succeeding due to calling other 4th and 5th Gen vampires over, and has revealed that Gehenna is happening since a star is heading on a collision course with Earth

Mekhet also explained that he is blood bonded to Lilith (his mother) and that other Antediluvians are working with Lilith to kill Caine and God, which is likely going to end horribly.

The group is now an almost all Blood Mage party, with Bruce learning Koldunism from The Book of the Grave War, a book of eldritch evil written in German. They are joined by Abbas the Chinese Muslim Lasombra Doctor/Writer with faith thaumaturgy, and Sadb a Lhiannan that has been in torpor since before King Arthur got stabbed (who is actually the progenitor of the bloodline, but is down to 8th gen due to continuous siring), Kokoro's also faith magic using Banu Haqim boyfriend

After about three sessions where Kokoro has continuously left Mekhet unimpressed and the vampire has let her know that he doesn't like her, including Kokoro if he likes anyone and him asserting that Basket is the only member of the coterie that he particularly likes, Kokoro still thought that it was a good idea to be catty with Kokoro...when Mekhet was giving the group a hotel to use as a haven and own

Basket: Wait, so your actual focus is weaponry. Aren't you just a warrior pretending to be an artist

Kokoro: You are obsessed with fashion, aren't you an artist pretending to be a wizard

Me: You are saying this in front of Mekhet

Kokoro: Yeah, if she is catty, I will be catty back

Me: Well, you have continuously dismissed magic, you know that she is the one neonate he likes...and that just insulted his culture of Magic Being Art, and the fact that mages often make shit to enchant, so, he is going to slap you. Roll stamina because his Celerity is atrociously larger than yours

Kokoro: *not nearly enough*

Me: Well, you are in Torpor

Kokoro: So my boyfriend is going to drag-

Me: Mekhet is going to cut his wrist and get you one step blood bonded

Kokoro: It is okay when she is catty but I can't, why am I here

Me; Dude, in-character, you have been continuously flippant in front of older and more powerful vampires. It is like you are trying to get yourself killed

Kokoro: I'm not

Me: Please remember the attempted mass diablerie

Kokoro: I thought that biting someone who is already nearly dead would be easier

Me: That would still result in the will roll, which is the thing that will actually screw you even if you do roll well because you don't have absurd willpower

Kokoro: Okay, I get it.

Me: So, we can roll this back, with you realizing, huh, maybe I should not insult the one which The Blood God likes, and he tells everyone to behave

Basket: I will backstab her later

Mekhet: If any of you die, I will look up how it happened

Basket: I'm not going to kill her

Mekhet: Good

They also had such wonderful things as

• decorating their new home (every player and the NPCs got points for haven/domain perks, it was Bruce and Sadb that actually put points in luxury while Basket was setting up mystical defenses, which Basket felt weird about)
• Them deciding to turn the basement into a public library (everyone rolling on things to make this happen, with Kokoro getting atrociously high rolls on law and politics, Bruce on scrounge, and Basket nearly botching, then Abbas getting 11 successes on writing a book on vampire philosophy, which Basket then got 10 successes on making cover art.)
• Bruce setting up a temple for his magic and sacrificing a rabbit to augur questions since Mekhet told them to find and awaken ventru, he used his book of pure evil to help, then they were all assaulted by horrible visions as each question gave them incredibly dangerous or confusing information, with Basket learning that Bruce's magic is actually Koldunism
• Kokoro thinking that they could use the internet to find a vampire that has been in torpor for 2000 years

Basket: You can't use magic

Bruce: Yes I can prepares augury while using occult library and evil book

Basket: I am laughing and don't think he actually can

Me: What are you sacrificing for the augury

Bruce: A crow or rabbit

Me: So, Basket roll linguistics and occult, both with int

Basket: success

Me: His magical formulae include at least eight languages

Basket: How did you learn eight languages under my nose

Me: He leans over the altar, holding the rabbit like a lover, this is the most important thing in the world to him right now, you have auspex, and you can see that everything is far more active. The chairs, walls, stones, altar, knife, and everything else has a spirit. And he is leaning over this rabbit as if it is the most important thing in the world, the dagger absorbs the rabbit's soul as he stabs into its neck, pouring out vitae while he drips his own in, ripping it apart with his claws and devouring all of its organs

Basket: Are you summoning a demon?

Me: You see smoke form the shape of a minotaur looking on in interest as great bat wings spread over the chamber

Basket: You are summoning a demon

Bruce: Let him flex his GM description

Me: He dances in a spiral, sometimes disappearing as he goes into dimensions that should not be, eating and vomiting the rabbit several times until the figures fade, the rabbit jumps out of his throat speaking in his voice

Basket: He summoned a demon to answer his questions and put it in a rabbit

Me: You can identify Bruce's form of thaumaturgy, it is Koldunism

Basket: This book is evil. There is no way it is not evil.

 

My friends started a side story in our dnd campaign on the enemy side

Me: female Udruan (fantasy Mongolia) philosopher who uses trick weapons (whip sword and gnome disc launcher)

Tremere: Half orc variant class spearman able to phase through walls

Gangrel: Catman thief

We started in prison, started a breakout and murdered several guards

Phase Shifter: last female guard, you are going to go downstairs and free a prisoner called The Painter (serial killer) now let’s all go up

Me: there are a bunch of sleeping guards that way, I am going with her

Phase Shifter: she will just get eaten

Me: I really doubt that she will do what we say without one of us there now I am going to keep this hand crossbow loaded and pointed at her head

*talk to The Painter, shoots guard twice in the back of the head*

Phase Shifter: So you are chaotic evil

Me: You wanted her to get eaten by female Hannibal lector, this is way more tame. Also we made a promise to free all the prisoners who agreed to work with us and I am following on that, so there is is no way she was going to survive

*later*

Everyone: why is your character insistent on the female Druid tiefling being in the group that isn’t trying to enter a portal to an unknown plane

Me: my character is a female philosopher accused of corrupting the youth who writes books and poetry. This is a reference

Everyone: who?

Me: Sappho of Lesbos

Everyone: who

Me: there are two really obvious terms which came from this

 

Reminds me of RWBY and Bloodborne

I can't help but think of the Book of Passion where a Sacred Prostitute (alt cleric) has a magic dildo for a holy weapon (it is counted as a mace).

That book had lots of things it tried to take seriously but you couldn't help but laugh at (doubly so because of it was presented seriously), especially if you imagined playing it.

 

Many Bloodborne jokes were made

Book of Passion might be one of the few books I don’t have

 

Get it on Drive Through RPG or whatever, the lols are worth it even if you never play it. Really, it likely should never be played, just add a sexcraft cantrip/magic items/make normal skills checks and various normal feats also have these effects or something and have it cover whatever, there is no need for new classes and feats and so forth for the stuff the book introduces if you want sex in your campaign, but really such things tend to just get awkward and disturbing if you don't fade to black, especially if all the PCs are not in on it.

 

My players' comedy of errors and taking forever to do anything led to the Tzimisce Methuselah they woke up deciding to wage war on the Prince of Chicago and make an empire in the Great Lakes area.

They decided to throw their lot in with the now nicknamed Voivode Mommy so I had a timeskip with them deciding what they had been doing and some roleplay

In summary. They saw Plato destroy people, accidentally ended up working for an Antedeluvian by insisting on wanting to go on an epic world trotting quest because "We are the main characters" Kokoro insulted said Antedeluvian, and Gangrel/Bruce became a blood mage with a book of apocalyptic knowledge that has bound itself to him, Basket got bad touched by The Crone and cried

Kokoro repeatedly fucks up in front of older vampires

Spoiler: part 1

Me: We are skipping forward two years in the game, but I want to just go over things like what you guys are doing over that time period, what you spend points on, and projects you engage in.

Kokoro’s Player: Well, I’m playing a Warreador (Warrior Toreador) and not Guiseppe.

Me: Uhuh, and first of all. Are you guys on the side of Sabina.

Kokoro: Yes, I am with her voivodeness

Me: That’s not the term

Basket: I follow her like a puppy because appearance 9.

Bruce: Probably, I’m with the Wolfpack now and they work for her.

Me: Good, so Voivode Sabina has thrown a party about eight months into her war of conquest. She has captured Lorraine, one of the Childer of Prince Lodin, and is essentially parading her many many wins. So, first of all. Here is a map of the Great Lakes Area (Shows image of a sprawling mass of Yellow with a mixture of Ouroboros, Cacedeus, and Akhn on it, Red with an Anarch Symbol tucked away up north, Blue with Camarilla to the east, Sabbat coming west from Canada, and some pieces of green that are locked away from each other in certain places with a werewolf symbol)

Tremere: What is the green

Me: That is the werewolves. It is not a good time to be a werewolf. This map is the area after about two years. It is not quite at this point yet.

Kokoro: What’s with the Anarchs

Me: Well, you took the flaws to make your sire an enemy of yours who is insane and powerful. So, he is a Stalinist. It is 1993 or so now. So the Soviet Union has fallen, and the Brujah Council who was propping up the Soviet Union has been destroyed. Mainly because everyone was eaten by Baba Yaga as she woke up, looked around at the absolute hell and went. “No, no no no.” And shoved them into her gullet.

Kokoro: Right, Baba Yaga is a thing

Me: Yes, so. Vampires who were pro Soviet have been fleeing what used to be the USSR. Which is something of a problem as Baba Yaga, unlike them, is able to make friends. And these friends make it incredibly difficult to leave. But those that do run screaming away in fear of their lives. Also the people who were agents that had been out and now know not to return. An exodus of these anarchs and their people were rallied by your sire who led them here to the dirty capitalist lands of America to fight the Camarilla for freedom, the destruction of their Feudal-Capitalist system, and free the people so that they might serve the Party.

Kokoro: So the Red Army came

Me: Yes. A lot of them might have actually planned to leave once they got to shore, but they didn’t know America well. So they landed in Michigan. Right as Sabina started conquering everything. They also landed on the part of Michigan which can only go east now due to Sabina controlling every other direction or it being water, also controlled by Sabina due to being a Koldun.

Kokoro: That couldn’t have ended well for them.

Me: They are desperately fighting the Camarilla to the East, and also there is the fact that there are still pockets of werewolves in the Midwest that don’t really have territory. They are also screaming in terror because Sabina allied with Baba Yaga, so Baba Yaga sent her dear children and friends to help kill more Soviets.

Basket: Don’t piss off Baba Yaga

Me: Yes, Baba Yaga has Dragons, and Sabina can become a Dragon

Basket:…Okay.

Me: The Sabbat, partially because of all of the old vampires around. Came in from Canada, the land which Guiseppe hates, but have a wall of lupine territory between them and Sabina for the most part. Which makes it difficult for either side to kill each other immediately, and Sabina really wants to kill them because of that incident with the Antedeluvians. Also because Vykos.

Bruce: Poor werewolves

Me: There is trench warfare in the cities still as there are not just werewolves. So, some werewolves live in cities and often sewers. And they were attacking the nosferatu. As were wererats who started doing things like blowing up humans. The Nosferatu in most cities have split, with there being ones who fled up north to the Anarchs, stayed neutral while defending themselves, or joined Sabina. Who started giving them vohzd war ghouls and anti-werecreature weaponry.

Basket: The Wolf pack must love that

Me: They prefer to be topside on bikes, but yes, they are involved in the sewer battles. Bruce, you have learned that bullets firing in confined spaces is horrible for your ears

Bruce: Definitely bad

Me: Lodin is going to die, but we aren’t at that part yet. During the months where this war started, before the Anarchs and Sabbat joined in, it has mostly been Sabina versus Lodin. The princes of the cities in the Chicago and Milwaukee Metro areas are divided, with Lodin calling in favors from a lot to gain their aid. Sabina swayed several of them, and has also called on her friends. So, a lot of ancient vampires have stomped over from Europe and other parts of the world, and come in here. To be terrifying monsters. Baba Yaga has sent support, Sabina has allied with Changelings and what seem to be Chinese ghosts, also blood bonded some mages, and she wants her new and old friends to get along, so there is currently a party celebrating the kingdom being carved out.

Bruce: Parties, I’d go but I’m probably just listening (came to the game tired and kept saying he wouldn’t do anything for most of the game despite having told me that what he wanted his character to do more was made connections and form relationships)

Basket: As I said, I’m with Sabina. Trying to figure out how to make sure she likes the Tremere.

Kokoro: I’m probably talking with people who have fought here

Me: I’m going to just say that all of you know each other due to the almost year of constant war and politicking

Sabina: Basket, Bruce, good to see you two again. I would like you to meet some of my friends *Gestures to a woman in ancient Greek clothing holding a short sword on her hip and a Japanese woman who cut her hair short and has vibrant makeup* These two dear friends of mine have accepted the positions of Seneschal and Herald. We’ve been allies since back when I was a ghoul. You know how it was back then, a lot of people did not really wish to treat women as equals

Me: By the way, the two women also both have appearance above 6

Basket: Sabina has ruined that for me as she is the best, but I will say that I feel like the sexism thing is something that you grow out of with age

Sabina: I was a ghoul, so there was that as well. And this was some over three-five thousand years ago. A lot of those embraced then didn’t have the time to go, oh, we should rethink that whole thing.

Basket: Well I hope they changed now

Sabina: Critias is disgusted when women speak with him because he holds onto Athens that tightly.

Basket: He’s getting better.

Sabina: Anyways, they are simply two of my oldest friends from then. I do have friends among the opposite sex. Like the Prince of Kenosha, Noel, a new friend of mine

Me: All of you see a guy who is hard to pin down. He is this albino guy who looks kind of like one of those teenagers who was tall in high school and kind of muscular, but he also visibly emaciated and looks like he didn’t get proper nutrition growing up so he is tall, skinny, kind of muscular, and the lack of fat is more due to being on the brink of starvation, and he hasn’t used one of the more esoteric things as a vampire to change that. He is however, properly groomed, clean, and wears what kind of looks like French nobleman’s clothing.

Bruce: Poor guy

Me: Basket, you see that he has a sheathed sword. Do you have auspex on normally, and which version?

Basket: Spirit sight

Me: One of the enemy princes is in that sword and is screaming in eternal agony.

Basket: What the fuck?

Sabina: *takes sword as offered by the Prince* You see, he, well his wife made it on his suggestion, is a wonderful friend. Magic is always a wonderful thing, and this allows us to use our enemies. The abilities within it will only work for those whom the blade was gifted, either by the maker or one who currently weilds it.

Basket: As a Tremere, I am working on finding mages for you to blood bond

Sabina: Yes, your Primogen did send me the Jade Demon *Points to a Fu Manchu looking wizard* and that is appreciated. But this, *unsheathes blade and grins* this allows me to use the disciplines of whoever was forged into the blade. Such a wonderful tool.

Basket: What if you had a lot of mages making just that.

Sabina: Yes, that is why I am quite happy with the Prince of Kenosha and the Tremere living there.

Basket OOC: I need to figure out some gift to give her.

Me: Everyone is trying to please the Tzimisce Methuselah that is over five thousand year old when counting time ghouled to another Methuselah. This court is filled with people all trying to give her the best gift or impress her.

Basket: What if I made you the best clothes? Magical clothes which never need to be cleaned.

Sabina: I really should name a Master of the Wardrobe

Me: Bruce, Mark Decker, another of your sire’s children. Is approaching you with a very young looking man who is dressed in mostly dark clothes, and has a fashionable black bucket hat, he is native American and has hair that goes down his shoulders but it cut very nicely.

Bruce: Hey Mark

Mark: Bruce! *slaps Bruce on the shoulder* This is Matthias Faucheux

Bruce; That is very French

Mark: Yes, I’ve also killed a lot of Frenchmen in wars though I hate the british. He was around here when Lucian and I were traveling around. Like me, he is your brother as a vampire. It is completely by accident that Lucian went continuously darker with his childer, I don’t think he really cares about that stuff or meant anything by that.

Bruce: Did he just

Matthias: Dude, don’t do that.

Bruce: Wow

Matthias: He is like three hundred, and I don’t think he pays attention to stuff other than hunting.

Mark: Matthias is Prince of Elgin and a really cool guy, if you ever want to go out and have fun he’s your man, also book reccomendations and poetic stories. He went all in on our clan’s whole culture with that stuff. I’m more of a hunter.

Bruce: Does he do this a lot?

Matthias: It is how he stays sane I think, just saying stuff without a filter.

Mark: So, Bruce, I know that you are having fun with the wolfpack. You’ve finally learned how to drive, that’s good. So, the three of us and our packs should team up for some werewolf hunting. They are the best prey, the best challenge *holds up a bag and pulls a werewolf pelt out of it* And the trophies

Basket; He skinned a werewolf

Me; With how I have been playing this guy, are you surprised

Basket: No

Mark: It always either pissed them off so they go for me instead of my friends, or they piss themselves and flee

Basket: I should make a coat out of them, them or the wererats

Me: Sabina has made it very clear that she wants the latter exterminated, though she continuously asks for the corpses of werebeasts and even captured ones so she can do horrible viccisitude and koldunic sorcery to create abominations against nature

Basket: I start talking to him about making a coat. It seems that I need to fight werewolves. And wererats, not sure what is with them

Me: One guy *clicks on in icon of Future-Past Charles Xaviar* will answer

Black Spiral Dancer Metis: The wererats believe that it is their sacred duty to curb the human population

Basket: That is insane, and how do you know that?

BSD Metis Rory MacCrum: I am a werewolf. Baba Yaga had be sent as an advisor and aid along with other packs

Basket:…Okay, so, back when I was a kid, my grandmother had a panic attack when she saw one of you guys and seemed to forget about it. what was with that

Rory: We traumatized humanity to the point that it is hard coded into your like, soul, DNA, collective consciousness or something.

Basket: Um, why?

Rory: Because you guys started making farms, and cities.

Basket: But you guys reproduce with humans

Rory: Yes, we wanted to keep all of you guys as hunter gatherers and nomads who couldn’t do anything to annoy us, fight us off, or anything else with didn’t like.

Basket: So you guys slaughtered us because…wait how long ago did you guys start that?

Rory: Well, about the start as Cain introduced farming to humanity since Seth was more animal herder Abel.

Basket: So about the beginning of mankind. How did you lose?

Rory: Well, Cain made cities, then he had those other monstrously powerful vampires rule over and protect them. The beginning of civilization was basically you guys feeding on humans in cities you made in exchange for fighting us off and making ghoul warriors while we tried to destroy all of you.

Basket: …You guys are just assholes

Rory: Yeah, but those are Gaian Garou. My tribe aren’t those anymore

Basket: What?

Rory: Well, they worship Earth, think that is the best thing ever, and say that there are three forces that run it, but that one of them is evil. I’m not Gaian, I was born in a cult that likes to live in nuclear reactors.

Basket:…I have a lot more questions but feel like this is just some weird rabbit hole that I probably don’t want to enter. Also, that is justifies me turning werewolves into clothes.

Rory: I’ll buy a set.

Kokoro: *Talking with the Banu Haqim spouse the PC has due to things taken in character creation, the small talk with a Malkavian, Son, and Marco the Finn (Brujah the players avoided a fight with)* I am going to look for the strongest person here.

Me: A woman with dyed blue hair wearing a business suit looks you up and down.

Kokoro: What?

Me: Okay. Do you have politics?

Kokoro: No

Me: Does anyone have politics

Basket; Guiseppe was the only one to have politics

Me: So, you guys have no idea who most of these people are and only vaguely recognize them from battles

Prince of Evanston: As you did not ask, Sarah Sikora by the way. You are just so eager, tripping over etiquette. There are more ways to fight. You have a much to learn.

Kokoro: And why is that?

Prince of Evanston: You might not be ready for the lesson I could teach you.

Kokoro: I think otherwise

PoE: Politics and the courtroom, much like a battlefield, are battlefields.

Me: And I am going to roll. You will want to roll stamina as well

Kokoro: Why?

Me: You wanted to learn Courtoise from VTR. She knows it. And 8 lethal damage. You are in torpor if you fail to soak this

Kokoro: *soaks 2*

Me: It feels like a spear was driven through your gut. Blood pours out of the wound that opens up along with your mouth and you collapse to the ground.

Kokoro: *Laughing despite nearly dying* Teach me

Me: Son, who thought that you were normal during his conversation with you, now looks at you thinking. “I know that I am a Malkavian, but this woman seems dangerously insane.” But he and your husband, Iskander, pull you up and drag you to the banquet table to get some blood, eyeing everyone in case of a frenzy.

Bruce: I am just going to listen to people

Me: A young man wearing a kind of red motocross biker suit is talking with a French accent, to a man who is either middle ages or just really worn down wearing an army dress uniform. Both have some kind of sword at their hip. The motocross guy has a basket hilted broadsword while the middle aged man has a scimitar.

French Prince of Roselawn: And I kind of had to do it

Prince of Portage: And you are twenty seven, being Prince of any city is a great achievement. Even if all of the kindred under your rule are thin-bloods and caitiff

FPoR: Somebody had to make sure they didn’t break the masquerade, and I am Lasombra, it is our duty to be stewards of our people.

Kokoro: Swords?

Me: You just got stabbed with words

Kokoro: I am going to talk to them

Me: They will introduce themselves.

Roman Waterman: I am Roman, of the Banu Haqim. The elders in Alamut sent me due to the call sent by our Voivode. I was given the princeship of Portage after the unfortunate matter of having to kill its previous ruler.

Kokoro: You keep that you kill

Roman: Not always as such with my clan. My friend, Killian, was regaling me with how he flailed upwards after being sent by his many times grandsire Montano and diablerizing one of Lodin’s bullyboys.

Killian: It was just how things go.

Kokoro: I see that both of you have swords

Me: Kokoro, you can tell that both of them are much better at using swords than you are

Kokoro: So, who do you know that is closest to having turned swordsmanship into an artform

Me: Roman looks at you as if you have just insulted him and his entire culture. Killian puts a hand on his shoulder and tells you. “Crazy Steve.”

Basket: I love that name

Me: *clicks on image of Old man Joel*

Steve: I heard my name

Me: This man is dressed in jeans, flannel, and an aviator’s jacket but a lot of people are wearing weird clothing so no one says anything about it. He has bandages around his hands that are seeped with blood and his forehead looks like he had a crown of thorns earlier.

Killian: She just asked about who we know that is best with a sword.

Kokoro: What is with the-

Steve: This happens to many of my clan

Me: This sometimes happens with malkavians.

Kokoro: So you are good with a sword

Steve: Yes. But there are more important things.

Kokoro: Really?

Steve: Like the law, I am a lawyer for both Cainites and the Children of Seth

Basket: Did I hear you say warrior?

Steve: I am one, but I am also a lawyer

Kokoro: So am I

Basket:…Why? Actually no, I’m talking to Steve.

Steve: I wasn’t talking to you

Kokoro: Yes, you are wrong

Basket: *summons storm clouds over her head to rain on her* So, What are you a lawyer of?

Steve: Internet law

Basket: The what now?

Steve: *Starts explaining actual bits of IRL internet law*

Kokoro: But swords

Steve: Do you know about computers

Kokoro: No, but my boyfriend does

Basket: So you don’t know anything about computers

Steve: What about cars, can you drive

Kokoro: No

Steve; Technology at all

Kokoro: Ahah, no

Basket: I can build a computer if I really wanted to

Steve: How old are you?

Kokoro: Counting years as a vampire, like 40

Basket: I was around for the great depression

Me: He is just going to sit the two of you down, telling you that it is important to keep up with the times and modernize even if vampires have lots of magical power. He gives you an informative lecture about modern technology, how to use it, and its implications in the future.

Kokoro: I wanted to talk about swords

Me: And this is a malkavian Dad sitting you down to make sure that you are able to perform basic functions in society like use a phone, which you currently have one dice for, and he is genuinely concerned for you.

Kokoro: I really should use some of my XP for drive and stuff.

Basket: I talk to Sabina some more

Me: She has gotten to the point where she has taken this beautiful woman with appearance 5

Basket: I want to slap her and tell her that she is ruining my ability to see the saint before me

Sabina: Basket, this is Lorraine, childe of Lodin, lover of Lodin, grandchild of Lodin

Kokoro: Okay…

Bruce: What was that last part

Basket: Can we roll that back

Me: Sabina is having fun at the party, explaining that Lodin embraced a young woman who turned out to be his great-grannddaughter, got blood bonded to her, and has been continuously feeding on her while she feeds on people who are high, and then doing other things

Basket: I feel like that is the kind of thing that happens eventually as the years go down

Me: Lodin is not so old that everyone is related to him, it is embarrassing, and depending on how you spin it implies a lot of depravity. Sabina is basically going, “Look at your city and the prince. Drug addiction, incest, criminality, conspiracies.” Even if not all of the things said are true, people the story and drama of it.

Sabina: Ah Bruce, I hope that you enjoy the party. Kokoro, please drink more, I apologize for the incident earlier.

Me: Kokoro, the first time that you met Sabina was when you returned to your haven and found her there, sitting in the shadows as you stepped in, not having told anyone where you live.

Kokoro: Well that is ominous

Me: She then greeted you by name, showed that she knew a lot about you, said that she was certain that the two of you would get along, and was overall kind and courteous while talking about how she had plans that included you and how she was happy to have this talk. Then offered to let you join her kingdom

Kokoro: Really ominous

Me: You are fairly certain that every vampire in this room who did not originally know her got that same treatment, and that she is too socially aware to not know that an introduction like that is terrifying.

Kokoro: No wonder everyone is trying to please her

Me: She knows where everyone lives, even if you move, one night you either wake up or return to find her there.

Me: At about this point, the war gets weird. Lodin receives aid from Eletria

Basket: I’ve head that name

Me; Not Elektra. Eletria was the prince of a city down in Mexico, constantly fighting the Sabbat. She is a 5thGeneration childe of Helena, and a spartan in her mortal life. She was Lodin’s lover who got him sired by her girlfriend and then sent him away because she wanted to avoid him getting killed.

Kokoro: Wait what

Bruce: Yes, can we get an explanation

Me: Eletria is Lodin’s ex-girlfriend. Eletria convinced her girlfriend to embrace Lodin so they could share said boytoy as they were several thousand years old and found him attractive. She was then far more into him than she was her lover of several hundred years, and sent him away so she could go “Baby no, I love you the most.” And try to keep said girlfriend who was pissed off at her.

Players:…

Me: This is canon lore. The tangle of relationships and telenovela was not of my creation.

Basket: So he has his own ancient vampire warrior mom coming to help him

Me: Yes

Kokoro: Voivode Mommy is with us

Basket: Yup

Bruce; Pretty much

Me; So this is our nickname for Sabina. Now, what are you guys doing over the next two years. You can spend XP on skills, disciplines, and attributes and you can roll for projects to obtain backgrounds.

Kokoro: Not spend XP on backgrounds?

Me: Allow me to read the Matureation Points system White Wolf made. Where ten years earns you 10 maturation points, which have the same cost scale as XP, but it cannot be combined with xp for purchases, and goes away if you don’t use them, which makes it worse than XP.

Basket: Well, that’s just terrible

Me: By this system, you can also roll a single d10 to represent a long term project you made to either upgrade a background or gain a new one. You can spend up to three maturation points to get a single plus one on the result of the die, but getting something above a 10 is no better than just a 10.

Basket: I prefer your system

Kokoro: I want to learn courtouise

Me: So you go to Evanston to talk to Sarah. This is basically a lakeside resort town. Sarah is lounging on a deck looking at the dark lake. She nods to you and picks up a longsword.

Sarah: I came to this area over two hundred years ago to perfect my arts and attempt to master the ability I created. The kindred of these city are the friends and descendants of those who followed me on this path of martial and courtly talent.

Kokoro: And I can learn it

Sarah: On the condition that you recognize and put into practice the core of the art. That there is no difference between politics and warfare, neglecting the latter for the blade is poor form and lacks the soul of this art.

Kokoro: I’ll do it.

Sarah: We shall see. Now, come at me and here is what I am going to do

Me: It is training montage from this point on. Despite you having celerity and extra actions from her actively letting you attempt to hit her, the difficulty is past 10 and it is basically impossible as she can still defend while also raising your difficulty

Kokoro: That second level power

Me: You are in hell right now. And for backgrounds?

Kokoro: Try to get a ghoul

Me: What kind

Kokoro: I guess kind of good with a sword, but more political

Me: Established or no?

Kokoro: No

Me: Okay, so you are looking for like a law or politics student who just graduated and did fencing or HEMA

Kokoro: Basically

Me: Roll…charisma and empathy I guess

Kokoro: *a few successes*

Me: One night after talking to your lawyer friends, you see Sabina in your chair.

Kokoro: Your voivodeness

Sabina: *Stares*

Kokoro: Voivode Sabina, how might I help you?

Sabina: Partially, it is the other way around. I have heard of your travels through the political circles. And wished to help. I have called revenant families to the city, and understand that you require someone to give counsel

Kokoro: And you would give one to me?

Sabina: I shall lend you their service. A Vlaszy

Kokoro OOC: I think all of those were killed, so she brought them back somehow

Me: She was around, wanted them to live, and can become a dragon. She ate the people trying to kill them

Kokoro OOC: Mommy voivode

Sabina: This comes with conditions, understandably, they will not be blood bound to you as that would defeat much of the purpose, and they ultimately report to me. Of course, that would not be a problem. I also see how this war will go, and the fact that important areas will still need proper nobles to maintain them and otherwise serve the kingdom and its people. As such, I will be tasking various groups to form coteries for purposes related to their talents and the needs that arise

Kokoro: I am sure we will keep working together your voivodeness

Me: She stares at you

Kokoro: I am happy to stay allies.

Me: You have the empathy, law, and general intelligence to know that right now, the issue with that is implying that you are equals. The correct answer is “Yes your majesty” or another term acknowledging her as your superior if you want to agree to have one of her knights working for you.

Kokoro: *Walks that back OOC. I am respectful to voivode Mommy* I would be happy to.

Me: Remember that it was Guiseppe who was there with Bruce when she woke up, and that she likes Basket because the Tremere gave her a powerful mage to be blood bonded.

Sabina: You see, it is best to be on my good side. It gives you benefits, and remember that ghouling is a wonderful tool. Why, i ghouled the city

Kokoro: What?

Basket: WAIT WHAT?

Me: We are having cuts between this and earlier as Sabina is sitting with Basket drinking blood as she explain that yes, she can blood bond spirits

Sabina: With Koldunism, one may blood bond spirits. And certain cities develop such personality that they create a spirit embodying it. So, I ghouled Chicago.

Basket: That is a thing?

Sabina: Yes, and now we don't have to worry about red lights

Basket/Kokoro: That, right there, is the most overpowered ability imaginable

Me: And Basket

Basket: I am going to spend time with my adopted son and go for the Kindred Iconography loresheet, trying to make Noddist Fashion mainstream

Me: So, when you arrive in your studio, the boy, Hashim, is there

Basket: Have you been working on your latin

Me: He quotes the Aneid in Latin

Basket: Good, it will be useful for you

Me: And as you enter your actual workshop, there are two people. a tall, long haired albino man in dress pants and a red dress shirt, and a woman with very punk hair wearing a biker vest.

Woman: Hello, I am Erica, Tremere of the Aurora Library, this is Demeter. He was an Archon, and is now Prince of Hammond

Basket: Um, what do you want?

Demeter When I came to Hammond I investigated the oil rig that Juggler was operating in. it was still running

Basket: I assume you turned it off, do you need me for that somehow?

Demeter: It was running perfectly with no one operating it

Basket: Oh

Demeter: And it was digging in the deepest part of the great lakes, into some place connected to the umbra, where the octopus monsters you mentioned in your report was. The ones that control people

Basket: It controls people?

Demeter: You talked about a fish-man that was fused to it

Basket: I thought that the malkavian was just experimenting

Demeter: It is the Chulovorah virus, umbran monsters from the depths of a world we cannot explore. There are those who theorize that these are what Lilith mated with when she traveled to the depths of the ocean

Basket: Oh. I wouldn't be surprised by that last part, the whore.

Demeter: Now, Erica and I would be happy to teach you more thaumaturgy, such as curses and making people drunk but there is something else

Basket: Did you guys really break into my workshop because I didn't know about something to put in my report? And what kind of power is making people drunk?

Demeter: You should say that you were studying the virus and put a bullshit explanation in them. And now for your punishment *Curse of the Crone's Pride. Appearance 0*

Basket: *terrified screaming as she becomes a wrinkled hundred year old woman that is horribly deformed*

Demeter: *Uses vine of dionysius to alleviate the mortal terror* This would normally last for a day, and you should know why this happened. *Flies out on a flock of birds*

Basket: *huddled up on the floor* did he really do that because of a bad report and quip?

Erica: No, do you remember the Council

Basket: They shouldn't ha *remembers Etrius* Oh no

Erica: Etrius really, really hates you. I am going to undo the curse for you now. I was told that I should make you kill half your models.

Basket: And choose who survives?

Erica: No, and kill the ones you want to live

Basket: What an asshole

Erica: Yes, but I am not bloodbound to him, and that was from specifically him while the others disagreed. So I'm not doing that. Demeter is bound to Etrius and has to do what he is told.

Basket: I'll do it if we need to

Erica: Just get ready to study horrible eldritch abominations.

Basket: I am going to work over the time skip on Noddist Fashion, My overall goal is to eventually make it mainstream, but I want to find an elder to patron that effort

Me: There are currently a bunch of cults in Chicago. The Church of Michael, The Cainite Heresy, and Cultivars are the big three, Lilith worshippers exist, but are far less mainstream. Cultivars seem to be Bahari lite

Basket: I'll check out the Cultivars

Me: Well, Caesar's Palace Man, Hortensius, is there doing the whole baptism in a lake thing to his most recent converts, who are mostly nosferatu. There is a caitiff woman standing nearby prostelytizing

Basket: Um, can I get a cliff notes of this stuff

Me: It sounds a lot like Lilith worship, with the worship of a female "Ancestor" but Hortensius makes it very clear that they are not worshipping lilith and some of his stories have the Ancestor talking to lilith and questioning her.

Basket: Uhuh, if there is a time I will go up to him and ask if he wants outfits

Hortensius: Well, we can always use uniforms

Basket: Would noddist fashion be okay?

Hortensius: I remember when that was just what everyone wore, but I am fine with that. I will need various sizes. Takes Nosferatu and dips them in the water

Me: The Nosferatu's looks like a normal person when he comes out

Basket: Wait what?

Me: This cult has a method of stopping clan curses for a night

Basket: ah, well it is just one night

Me: Which can be done repeatedly, these Nosferatu are very religious and do not question him

Basket: I'd imagine. And this gives me many, many more questions, but i'm not going to ask because I think it will just break my brain.

Me: These Nosferatu have found religion and love it.

Basket: So, what exactly are you guys about

Hortensius: We are gardeners

Basket:…Is that metaphorical or no

Hortensius: Sometimes more metaphorical, we grow things whether physically or more conceptually, like businesses and neighborhoods instead of plants and animals.

Basket: *makes uniforms for them and gets over 12 successes* I am that good.

Me: Okay, Bruce, have saved like over 40xp, what are you spending it on?

Gangrel: More scrounge so I can make money

Basket: By going on the streets and picking up every bit of cash you can find

Me: *posts in description of scrounge*

Basket: Oh God, that is basically magic

Gangrel: And scrounge 5, and maybe manipulation 5

Me: Do you want to be the Kingpin?

Gangrel: What?

Basket: Manipulation 5 is The Kingpin manipulation, are you ready to be a crime boss?

Me: Specialties that you want to take in scrounge

Bruce: I guess, magic items, and books

Me: Okay, roll manipulation which you have 4 dots and a specialty in plus all of that

Bruce: *Almost all crits, no ones*

Kokoro: Did you find the necronomicon?

Me: So, we cut to the dead of night in milwaukee, you are jumping out of a house, you have found an ancient text. The Book of the Grave War, a tome of magical lore and prophecies from over 800 years ago, written by a mad malkavian inspired by some other force

Bruce: Am I vampire indiana jones?

Me: You run out of there, hop onto your bike as the house explodes, out of it this giant bearded malkavian screaming "You can't have it, YOU CAN'T HAVE IT" as wolves howl in the distance. The wolfpack fire on him as he charges and you all flee.

Me: This book is all about the apocalypse, diablerie, mind control, and lots of just seemingly insane stuff and dark arts including trading sanity for magical power

Kokoro: It is the necronomicon

After learning that it is written in german, Bruce decided to spend xp on getting 3 dots in linguistics and the natural linguist merit (16 languages for a lot of xp) and then purchase 1 dot in occult, 2 in thaumaturgy, and another willpower point as he studies the book instead of giving it up

Basket: Why didn't you just give me the book?

Bruce: I'm learning magic. Which is expensive. *He did get a second dot in resources due to the fact that he has entered the magical arms trade along with ancient books (along with being a ridiculously good translator now

Spoiler: part 2

On the second flash forward session, Basket’s player was unable to make it.

The way things went over. Kokoro’s player decided to take a houserule that the VTR mechanics related to courtoise (frenzy checks are higher in certain social situation) would be applied as she essentially became part of a bloodline in the process of learning it, and then spent xp on conscience on top of getting a dot in drive.

Basket’s xp was spent on dominate, weather control, self control, intimidate, and getting another dot in appearance (appearance 5 now)

The player also changed their icon to reflect it.

Bruce’s thaumaturgy xp was spent on Biothaumaturgy (Mad science) and Spirit Summoning (Nature spirits, not ghosts)

The players also chose their teammates between sessions (I gave them a list of people older vampires might recommend or that would have potentially met over the time skip, they chose a Chinese ex-Sabbat Lasombra Pirate with faith magic (long story involving the Afghan-Soviet war of 1980s), and a recently awoken 8th gen Lhiannan which is essentially a celtic witch vampire)

So, they are an almost all blood mage party

Me: Okay, we are going over more of the time skip. Lodin eventually tries to call a treaty where they agree to stop fighting and just leave things as they are since Sabina has carved out a massive domain including multiple princedoms and Lodin still technically has the backing of the Camarilla, mostly due to Eletria’s influence

Kokoro: Which isn’t what happens in the end

Me: No, no it doesn’t. So. You are all meeting in an opera house….would you and Bruce know each other at this point? Is there a rivalry between Jazz and Punk

Both: Probably

Me:…Well this is definitely interesting. So, Critias one of the Brujah primogen. Is between the two groups, declaring his neutrality, but stating that there are preexisting issues. And so he starts talking about democracy and tyranny, and goes on, and on, and on

Kokoro: Wow, this is annoying

Sabina: He is Greek, we allow them to do this.

Bruce: Seriously?

Me: It continued, is there anyone you would like to talk to while the philosopher has a diatribe?, Baby Chorus is there. Most of them are not happy with this situation. Kokoro, also know Bruce because he helped Guiseppe, Basket, and the Sherrif knock out Damian and take him over to Critias to be blood bonded. Damian hates that.

Kokoro: That would be weird

Me: Blood bonds don’t stop hate. Damian does not like his sire since he is an old Greek man

Kokoro: It could be worse, like he could have become romantically in love with him

Me: Critias is an ancient Greek man from Athens, dislikes women, and spends most of his time with men including attractive young ones. However, their relationship is strickly Fatherly on Critias’s side. Also, despite being super tall, Damian is a teenager

Kokoro: I apologize for going there

Me: In case you didn’t look it up. Baby Chorus is Damian, Garwood Marshall of the Tremere, Raymond Falcon of the Malkavians he is the childe of Jason ‘Son’ Newberry, and the last member is Kathy Glens of the toreador. Her sire is Tamoszius or Nero as Kathy calls him. Nero organizes Baby Chorus and deals with the factions for you guys. Unlike most examples, The two of them have a perfectly amiable relationship between sire and childe. Nero does not however like that he has to essentially work for Sabina due to Lodin trying to get the group killed

Kathy: I really hate that we have to work for a theocrat

Kokoro: Not having red lights is a definite benefit

Nero: She has also been helping fund us, and giving us expensive equipment

Me: You have upgraded to rusty van to a SUV that is from this year and is really spacious. Along with great sound equipment, a recording studio, and everything else you guys could dream of.

Kokoro: Lots of benefits. Though, I’m worried about what happens if we piss her off.

Me: The Chancellor, Florent, his job is to keep record of boons and such, will answer you *taps icon*

Kokoro: He looks like Castlevania Alucard

Me: he does

Florent: Blood bonds for the first strike

Kokoro: Like one step

Florent: Two steps. If you really anger her it is full blood bond combined with Presence and Dominate warping your mind to accept the blood bond, possibly some time imprisoned in your own body through vicissitude. Especially egregious events will get you eaten, often by someone else as she rewards one who pleased her with your generation and disciplines.

Kokoro:….Fair enough.

Florent: That’s mom. The other option is getting an ax in you. Really, just agree with her and stay on her good side.

Me: At the end of the time skip, Capone, who had gone Anarch previously, is blood bonded and under heavy Discipline mind control to ensure his loyalty.

Kokoro OOC: I forgot that Capone was alive and a vampire in this universe

Me: Because you guys never went to Chicago before. Bruce, would you be talking to anyone during the meeting?

Bruce: No

Me: Would you have been spending the time skip hanging out with the werewolves on Sabina’s side

Bruce: Yes

Me: You learn weird things.

Bruce: really?

Me: *Puts in Icon of a Kinfolk* So, this man, Isaac, is involved in a lot of the joint operations between your groups. He does not turn into a werewolf, ever. As you guys have continuous operations, including killing enemy werewolves, he does explain werewolf culture

Bruce; What is is like?

Isaac: I am Kinfolk, I am related to werewolves, and we are essentially second or third class citizens

Bruce: That’s terrible. Wait, werewolves spend time with humans?

Isaac: Werewolves create Metis if they reproduce with other werewolves, and are sterile. They are the second class citizens if they aren’t left out to die or exiled, if they are still around, then they are treated better than Kinfolk since they are still you know, werewolves.

Bruce: Well that is shitty, so why do werewolves fight each other?

Me: The majority of werewolves on your side describe themselves as Black Spiral Dancers. The BSD explain that they are the descendants of the White Howlers, Pictish Werewolves who had fought against the invasions of the Romans

Bruce: Wow, that is cool

Me: The BSD go on to explain that for an incredibly long time, the werewolves were lead by the Silver Fangs, who they describe as the Nazis of werewolves who believe that they are an especially pure breed meant to rule over all werewolves

Bruce; Ew

Me: They agree with you on that, the Black Spiral Dancers explain that the Silver Fangs had spent a long time manipulating the Romans and were invading Pictish land alongside other tribes of werewolves for the purpose of taking their land, their magical artifacts, and kidnapping their kinfolk to use in their breeding programs. Which is where the comparison they used come from

Bruce: That is just really horrible, so why do other werewolf clans work together

Me: They share a religion. The Black Spiral Dancers also assure you that the other werewolves hate humans. with an entire clan of them having been assigned by the Silver Fangs to manipulate humans and curb their development. The clan was originally called the Watchers of the Apes

Bruce: But the werewolves reproduce with humans

Me: Yes, they still consider humans apes, or less than apes. With non kinfolk humans considered even lesser than the kinfolk who are considered less important than real werewolves

Bruce: They are just kind of terrible, so what do the Kinfolk on our side have to do on this

Isaac: We call ourselves the Skin Dancers, we kill the Gaian werewolves and take their pelts. If we can get five of them, we become werewolves

Bruce: That’s cool, how?

Isaac: Wyrm magic

Bruce: Like dragon on worm?

Isaac: Dragon, the Wyrm is one of the three entities meant to create balance in the world. Wyld is unformed chaos, Weaver gives it form and is stasis, Wyrm is change and destruction. You can probably guess that the Weaver wasn’t happy about its job when nothing it did ever stayed, you know, how it made them

Bruce: Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a good way for things to go

Isaac: Yes, so, the Weaver trapped the Wyrm and wants to defeat the wyld. That is why things are so horrible now. The Gaian Werewolves love the Wyld, but hate everything else and want it to win.

Bruce: I don’t think uncontrolled chaos is a good thing

Isaac: Exactly, they talk about balance and all of that, but they really aren’t trying to fix things, just destroy the other forces which are already out of balance and doing things they aren’t supposed to, or not doing their job. And if the weaver wins, everything magic dies

Bruce: That would be bad

Isaac: So, if we free the Wyrm, things will either be in balance, or the apocalypse happens and everything resets

Bruce: I'm not so sure about that part

Isaac; We can agree to disagree

Bruce OOC: So is this a thing where we are short term allies

Me: Both sides agree that the world ends in under twenty years so short term is long term as far as they are concerned. They disagree about how the world ends but are working together since you know, magical spirits and dragons help when fighting the Sabbat and Soviet Anarchs with military weaponry. Also both sides want to kill the other werewolves and take their shit

Bruce OOC: That seems fair

Me: Do you still hang out with them

Bruce: Yes

Me: If you hang out with the Skin Dancers especially. You will see them performing rites where a Bull Man made out of smoke talks to them

Bruce: Is that a Minotaur

Isaac: It is The Minotaur, I think it used to be a vampire of your bull dancer people

Bruce: The toreador?

Isaac: Yes. It became a god after it died because of that whole be one with your beast thing or whatever

Bruce: It isn’t one with the Beast

Isaac: Whatever your weird philosophy is, you can kind of transcend your current state

Bruce: Oh, that’s cool

Me: The Minotaur will take note of you if you continue to be around the ceremonies

Bruce: Okay

Minotaur: If you meet my stepmother, Helena, summon me. She killed my father, and I need to punch his soul out of her.

Bruce: Okay….that doesn’t sound like the myth I know

Isaac: Things were apparently lost in translation or something, we don’t question it

Me: You know that Helena wasn’t in the myth you knew. So, back to the party.

Florent: Also, don’t mention the Inconnu to her

Kokoro OOC: What are those?

Me: Roll occult

Kokoro OOC: I don’t have it, but Iskander *NPC vampire boyfriend gained through merits* does

Me: Roll

Iskander: 0

Bruce: 2 successes

Me: Bruce knows that the Inconnu are supposedly a secret sect of vampires that know about Golconda and spy on everyone

Bruce: Weird hermit spy people

Florent: Yes, Michael, the Methuselah, spoke of them before he went to Constantinople. Rome had many forces manipulating them such as vampires and werewolves. But the vampires were manipulated by elder vampires who hid themselves from their pawns. They were quite upset by Michael convincing the mortals to move the capital of Rome to Constantinople, the split of the empire, and the East being far more effective and prosperous while they got repeatedly invaded by other nations who they had previously defeated, abused, or were running from…the huns, if forget sometimes

Kokoro: So politics

Florent: They were also one of the forces along with the Baali and Setites who caused the fall of Constantinople to raving crusaders. Because they were petty and pissed off at Michael.

Kokoro: That is stupid

Florent: Yes, they then claimed to have sworn off politics and went in search of Golcanda, which they claim to have achieved. All while hiding themselves away from everyone at the same time as spying on and infiltrating everyone.

Kokoro:…That is being engaged in politics, and the same stuff they were doing before

Florent: Yes, they also claim to be above everyone, not being manipulated by anyone older than them despite that being a thing for everyone else, and don’t go around spreading teachings about Golcanda

Kokoro:…That is just pretentious shit

Florent: Yes, I sincerely doubt that they have actually obtained Golcanda precisely because of all of that contradictory information.

Kokoro: Wait, Sabina is your mother

Florent: Not my sire though. I have around six or so parents when you count the vampires my parents were ghouled to, my sire, and the koldun involved in my conception. Actually, no I don’t consider my sire a parent.

Kokoro: Who is your sire?

Florent: Vykos. Mother hates it since Vykos became a woman out of spite

Kokoro: That doesn’t really make sense.

Florent: Vykos was part of the original Anarch Revolt. When it failed and the majority of the leaders met at the founding of the Camarilla, the treaty involved the Anarch leaders being blood bonded. Vykos proceeded to fleshcraft their parts off and throw them on the table while saying that it would emasculate itself rather than have it done to it by the Camarilla

Kokoro: Couldn’t Vykos regrow their…actually, wait, wouldn’t that be a different thing

Florent: Vykos changed their name from Myka to Sascha, used fleshcrafting, and lived as a woman…part of the time, others Vykos is genderless. I think Mother was offended by the idea of the original change being a statement about being metaphorically emasculated. They are Tzimisce, sex means rather little as vicissitude changes things.

Me: And Critias finishes his speech by pointing to Tyler. “And the blood feud between us for the diablerie of my child has not ended fiend. Which is why I called my nephew” You all hear, thonk thonk thonk thonk thonk, as something approaches

Kokoro/Basket: Is this something bad?

Me: The doors burst open as you see a much much taller and broaded Greek man with a face you all recognize. Plato, whose name means The Broad. It is not his birth name, and is his wrestling name much like Dwayne The Rock Johnson’s name is not actually The Rock. IRL, Plato is a relative of Critias

Kokoro: This can’t end well, is Socrates a vampire?

Florent: Yes, also Diogenes

Me: Plato slams Tyler through the wall.

Kokoro: Did this become DBZ?

Me: Remember part 1 of Jojo where Dio walks up a wall by shoving his feet through them and they are fighting up the wall?

Kokoro: Oh

Me: Plato is also clearly doing things for style purpose, there is lots of Presence being thrown around and neonates feel conflicted as this giant guy is beating her up, partly because she does look young and she was a peasant, so she is much shorter than the average woman in this era. But then other vampires with greater presence just shut them down.

The players learn that when two 6th gen vampires are fighting, the difference of over two thousand years of age and focus on martial arts on Plato's side making it horrifically unfair

Me: She does have celerity, fortitude, and potence, but hers are....much lower than his and this is very clear as Plato just uses high level disciplines that you have not seen before

Bruce: Ow

Me: It is horrible, it is unfair, and he isn't killing her, he is doing this because she shamed his family and murdered his brother, so he is spending the time to let her heal her broken limbs and ribs before doing it all over again. When she is able to get away, things like stone pillars being thrown at each other and being punched through floors happen a bunch.

Players: We are not getting involved

Me: Okay, Eletria runs in to stop it, she is 5th generation

Players: ....Does she win?

Me: It is two on one which helps and she has the celerity you'd expect from an over 2000 year old toreador of her generation. But she is relying on that and physical power, she also...as a toreador, focused on the arts that are far more traditional instead of you know, the art of combat, she is good, but...

Kokoro: Should I be making a roll since this is the art of combat and that is my thing?

Me: Yes

Kokoro: beats DC 9

Me: Some background rolls

Me: An ancient Greek man walks in, he looks at Bruce, “are you Lucian's boy?”

Kokoro: Can he smell it or something

Me: Gangrel, yes

Bruce: yes

Castor: Are you winning grandson?

Bruce: I'm not the one fighting

Castor *Notices the battle*: Niece, great-grand nephew, stop killing each other. *spots Portia/Helena* Sister, are you still trying to kill your husband

Kokoro: *realizes that there was a Methuselah staying in Chicago having a feud with another one* Well they haven't managed to yet.

Me: You then see the Nosferatu Primogen Deobfuscate, wearing full Middle Eastern Armor and holding a sword as he stabs Tyler saying “Sanbat!”

Kokoro: I don’t think we can join in this

Me: The Nosferatu and Tyler are fighting each other, Eletria looks at Helena but then tries to fight Plato and fails horribly as she ends up with her head just being repeatedly smashed into the ground

Me: Then a tank rolls in, but that gets destroyed by a giant guy who looks like some kind of pirate from sub Saharan africa, he is quite clearly a Lasombra as he is wrapped in armor made of shadows and starts fighting against the sabbat alongside a woman who looks like Jean D’Arc along with a lot of other Lasombra pirates as he raised a sword at the Sabbat and says “Never again shall I serve the Regent” there are also anarchs, and this becomes just a four way war

Kokoro: I am going to fight

Bruce: same

Me: You are going to start needing to make rolls

The combat went fairly well with Kokoro managing to get over 10 successes on the damage dice (the character has additional discipline potence) to decapitate (less so on to hit) sabbat and Bruce doing even better on his to hits. Iskander, Kokoro’s NPC boyfriend only got one success due to 1s

Kokoro: I am disarming and decapitating

Bruce: I am going full WWE

Kokoro: Can we assume that Bruce helps Isakander

Me: Kokoro, you sheer through a ventrue antitirbu's sword and decapitate him with a single blow, Bruce is tackling people off of different floors and taking them down with him as he smashes their backs on the railing and lands with his feet on them before ripping people's faces off then throwing one guy into Sabbat who was fighting Iskander hard enough that their bones break

Castor: *tearing people to shreds* You're WINNING GRANDSON!

Bruce: So that's where Lucian got it

Me: You see a Lasombra wielding a Dao sword, cutting people to pieces due to potence, he is mainly fighting Sabbat since he has no idea about the other factions here

Kokoro: That is understandable, I assume everyone ends up back to back at some point

Me: Yes, which is when the lasombra uses obtenebration for tentacles to fight even more of the sabbat while the rest of you are all making short work of your opponents. He nods at you

Kokoro: because Asian?

Me: No, if he cared about race he’d probably hate you given the histories of your countries. This is purely because all of you clearly don’t like the Sabbat

Kokoro: *thinks on that* Yeah, I do not know what I was thinking.

Me: Florent looks at you guys and says “Would you like some help?”

Kokoro: Yes please

Me: You see ghosts appear everywhere and start ripping people apart, he just nods to you

Kokoro: Necromancy is OP

Florent: Yes, now. I shall make my leave

Me: He opens a portal to the Shadowlands and just walks through

Kokoro: Necromancy is bullshit

Me: Yes, it is. Eventually, the fight is over, Lodin is stabbed by Kevin Jackson, Tyler is diablerized by the Primogen of the Nosferatu who then goes insane and needs to get staked by his childe. She is crying in despair over this as she takes his unconscious body out. Maldavis, one of the anarch leaders, is nearly killed but then a bull kills the person about to do so, grabs her, and turns into mist, melding into the earth.

Kokoro: Well, this has been chaotic

Bruce: We are probably low on blood

Me: Everyone is.

Kokoro: So we eat the wounded vamp-

Me: Everything is ashes. The Lasombra vampire who was with you guys introduces himself as Abbas Kuang

Kuang: We might want to leave before the cops come, I would offer help but I do not have a car due to coming in on a pirate ship

Me: Do you talk to anyone else?

Both: No

Me: You see one guy dragging a pair of identical vampires up the steps, he then gets help by a man you know is Brennon Thornhill, owner of the Succubus Club. They both look at you guys and nod as they leave. Helena is in a daze, sitting on the ground. Nicolai *Puts in image of the kid from The Omen*

Bruce: He is a kid

Me: he is like 700

Bruce: Oh

Me: Nicolai is in a daze and sits next to Helena

Helena: I think my sire was eaten by my grandsire

Nicolai: I think I am a bad person

Kokoro: *looks to bandmates* What is happening with the scary little boy?

Garwood: I think my primogen gained a conscience after diablerizing someone

Kokoro: Hey, it isn’t like eating your enemies is bad

Nicolai: No, I mean. All of the other things I did. I turned Gangrel, Nosferatu, and Tzimisce into Gargoyles. I dominates so many people, the blood bonds, I embraced a girl because I fell in love and then tried to make her love me, I…I think all of the people in the Chantry are in there because I tried to make a family unit

Kokoro: That last part isn’t bad, but the rest, yeah. That is really fucked up

Nicolai: And DuSable, oh God, everything makes sense now. What is with this city and Incest?

Kokoro: Well my country can be weird. Cousins are kind of-

Nicolai: Lodin was blood bonded to his great-grandaughter and DuSable embraced his grand-niece for similar reasons. The age gap alone is a massive power imbalance

Bruce: Ew

Kokoro: Have to agree. I can see that you are having an existential crisis, but I think you might want to leave here for it. So, band van

Me: Hortensius is by the SUV as you guys including the two primogen get there. He was named Keeper of Elysium by Sabina

Kokoro: Hello scary guy

Hortensius: So, *enters van* have you determined the coterie you were to make.

Kokoro: Well I have some ideas

Hortensius: What was the purpose of the Coterie?

Kokoro: Whatever Sabina wants it to be?

Me: *gives them a list of coterie types from V5, doesn’t include some of the types*

Kokoro: What about Questari, a grand purpose.

Me: Well Somnophile would be that you are guarding Menele’s body

Kokoro: From Helena, which would be a problem

Me: Bruce is effectively from her brother’s line, and your mentor is Annabelle, who is her grand-childe.

Bruce: Hmmm, the Minotaur might end up doing something, especially since I decided not to summon it earlier. Questari sounds good, we could travel the world?

Kokoro: Yeah

Me: So, you want to travel the world while working for Sabina.

Kokoro/Bruce; Yes

Me: Are you sure?

Kokoro/Bruce: Uhuh

Me: You voice that

Kokoro/Bruce: Yes

Hortensius: So, I need you to help me find an Antedeluvian

Everyone:…..What

Hortensius: I want you to find an Antedeluvian and bring them here. Everyone else can leave if they do not want to hear more

Me: Everyone but Kuang leaves. The four of you, including Kuang and Iskander are just driving, taking directions from Hortensius as he directs you to the currently under renovation, The Drake Hotel. Kokoro has auspex, you can tell that this place is haunted. There is a floating woman in a red dress going through the windows, a woman with a gunshot wound in her eye, and a man who looks like he was tortured to death along with two men constantly hounding him.

Kokoro: Of course he bought a haunted hotel

Me: Yes, the ghosts are terrified of him. He leads you up to an office, none of you are able to stop yourselves from going ahead. You also notice that there is a coffin in the office.

Kokoro: Out of character, I know you said that he was an antediluvian

Me: You don’t know that in character, but are about to learn that.

Hortensius: So, what do you know of the antedeluvians

Kokoro: There are thirteen of them

Hortensius: There are thirteen that you know of, but that is debated with people arguing about Set and Osiris, and all of the diablerie. So, there are, around twenty or so that are still around

Kokoro: Twenty?

Bruce: That is bad

Hortensius: Yes, so, what do you know about Lilith?

Kokoro: Not much

Hortensius: Ennoia

Bruce: She was the Gangrel Antedeluvian

Hortensius: Correct, so sit around while Uncle Hortensius tells you a story. First, who cursed Caine

Bruce: God

Hortensius: Ish, there was the first curse by God. Were Cain and Abel twins

Kokoro: No, because Cain was older

Hortensius: I am worried about how you think twins work. So, first of all, they were twins, but not twins of each other. As you can guess, Adam and Eve had children other than them since you know, you need a woman to reproduce without divine intervention.

Bruce: That makes sense

Kokoro: Oh yeah

Hortensius: So, they were twins, but their twins were their sisters. In the case of Caine, Luluwa, Aclima, whichever way you like to call her, their actual language is long dead. Abel wanted to marry and have sex with Luluwa, Luluwa did not, Caine was unhappy with this situation and suggested that Abel should not get to just do whatever he liked. Adam, being something of an idiot, decided that he should just have God choose who married who.

Kokoro: So that is why Caine killed Abel

Hortensius: Yes, Caine did not like the idea of Abel forcing his twin sister to marry him just because God said so. Then he was cursed with the mark. Luluwa, realizing that this might happen again, traveled with Caine after his banishment. God, realizing that he had fucked up again, decided that it would be best if he removed himself from the situation and didn’t fuck around with mortals

Kokoro: That kind of makes sense.

Hortensius: The angels, were kind of pissed off about all of this, and started trying to ‘fix’ things themselves

Kokoro: And that can’t end well

Hortensius: So, the angels repeatedly went to Caine, talking about how people had forgiven him. Caine promptly told them to fuck off and let him be depressed about killing his brother, which he did not forgive himself for. The Angels, being you know, not humans, got pissed off about that and kept cursing him for that. Which is how you got the Beast, and the whole, Burn in sunlight stuff.

Kokoro: So the angels are the bad guys

Hortensius: No comment. Caine and Luluwa then found Lilith, who taught them magic, but that mixed with the curse and led to Caine gaining disciplines and becoming what you would call a vampire. As Lilith was cursed by God so no one could love her, and Lilith has lots of mind control magic, Caine and Luluwa decided that it would be best for them to leave Lilith. She was not happy about that

Kokoro: I see where this is going

Hortensius: Caine now had to feed on blood, and often fed from Luluwa when he was not hunting animals and bringing them to her. But, the Beast is a thing, along with Frenzying, and when they were traveling through a desert, he entered a hunger frenzy, draining Luluwa dry. Out of remorse, he Embraced Luluwa, making the first of the second generation. They later found the descendants of Seth, and introduced technology to make the First City.

Six of the Antedeluvians were children of Lilith. Each born in a set of three. These sets were Arikel, Malkav, and Nahema, or Malakai as some call her. The progenitors of the Toreador, Malkavian, and Daughter of Cacophony lines. The others were Ennoia, Churka, and Mekhet, spawning the Gangrel and Ravnos. Malkav and Nahema were lovers, as were Ennoia and Churka since really the options were limited. They were told by Lilith that their fathers were separately, Adam, Cain, and Lucifer, don’t ask how or which was which because Lilith was a terrible mother who would not explain that.

Kokoro: Is this going to be a theme?

Hortensius: Yes it is. So, these six were some of the first mages, and as you might guess Mekhet was me. We all traveled the world, seeing the sights and all of that, talking with fey, Ennoia sleeping with some of the werewolves which makes it so all of them are descendants of Lilith by now, but most of us really didn’t like them. They were always telling us about how they were superior guardians of the world and all of that, then there was their slaughter of other werecreatures because they believed that everyone should worship them for being the best warriors.

Bruce: That kind of fits what I learned

Hortensius: And so, we later heard of the First City and Cain’s rule. So we went to our possible father. Cain, realizing that letting Lilith have access to powerful mages was probably a bad idea, bid his Childer, the Second Generation to embrace us. We lived there for centuries, but as all families do, we had drama.

Kokoro: I heard some of that involving the Toreador antediluvian

Hortensius: Yes, Absimiliard tried to sleep with Arikel and Ennoia, thinking that doing that with two children of Lilith was a good idea. He got beaten up and scarred while his brother Lucien, not the Gangrel one, laughed.

Kokoro: Oh

Hortensius: As I was saying, the drama continued and after the flood and Father left to consider his failures, we had a war with the Second Generation. Caine came back, saw that we had burned down the house when he was out, and cursed us all while also warning us about the rules he had put down. Most of us Embraced childer, Caine gave up trying to just tell us what to do and said that we’d regret it. Then Troile diablerized Ilyes, Saulot made the Baali, and we realized how bad things were. Father told us to hunt down the Baali and kill them all, but none of them actually paid attention to that and shit got worst. Caine told everyone to just listen to Ventru but no one listened to that and grabbed the stakes. Set ate Apep and became evil, and we all eventually left the city. Cappadocius started plotting to eat God, Saulot spent far too much with the Kuei-Jin and Osiris talked about how we should kill all vampires, I helped Set kill Osiris over that and then there was more plotting to deal with the other two idiots.

Kokoro: Wait you were involved in killing Antedeluvians

Hortensius: Would you let the death mage who wants to diablerize god and the guy who can suck out souls just go around with their own personal armies? Anyways, that didn’t really work out since one is a Wraith and the other is staked in the middle of the Tremere Council’s home, so they are compromised

Kokoro: Oh fuck

Hortensius: Anyways, the Baali seduced Troile and so Ventru and I had to make a ritual to seal them up underneath Carthage. But then Ventru got staked again somewhere. Now, Lilith wants to kill Caine and God which can’t end well.

Bruce: So what are you doing then?

Hortensius: Well, I am blood bonded to Mother and she has four other Antedeluvians blood bonded along with The Crone, a second generation vampire working for her. I am stuck here making sure she doesn’t get at Nahema since she is underneath the Great Lakes, also halfway in Hell and The Dreaming. Plus, that oil drilling rig was trying to dig her out. I don’t want someone who can alter reality with her insanity dragged out and manipulated by mother

Kokoro: That does sound bad

Hortensius: Yes, so. *opens coffin and unstakes a vampire in there*

Lhiannan Woman: *Screaming in Latin*

Me: So, Kokoro, you have French for some reason

Kokoro: Yes

Me: She is speaking in a lot of different languages, really angry, and eventually starts using an archaic form of French.

Kokoro: What is she saying

Lhiannan Woman: Who holds Londoninium, does Arthur reign?

Kokoro: What?

Lhiannan Woman: *Repeats it*

Kokoro: He held it for a time

Me: She grabbed your shirt and slaps you several times, it hurts

Kokoro: OW

Lhiannan: Who holds Londoninium, does Arthur reign?

Me: You get the feeling that dancing around that question would just piss off the ancient vampire who apparently woke up after around two thousand years in torpor.

Kokoro: Um

Me: You know that Mithras is the vampire in charge there

Kokoro: Mithras is the Prince, and other people rule the humans

Lhiannan: Morgan is going to be so angry

Kokoro: Morty?

Me: Morgan

Kokoro: Morty?

Me: she slaps you again

Kokoro: I thought you said Morty

Me: An ancient vampire is talking about London and King Arthur, and you think I was saying Morty.

Me: Hortensius puts a hand on the vampire’s forehead, she speaks English now.

Kokoro: That is helpful

Hortensius: So, this is Sadb. She will be helping you. Now, I want you to find Ventru

Kokoro: Why?

Hortensius: Because an Antedeluvian with ultimate mastery of Dominate and Presence is useful when trying to gather the Antedeluvians to fight Lilith. Also, probably easier than trying to find God or Caine. Also, we are dealing with the Crone so that can’t end well

Kokoro: I’m not sure if

Me: He touches your head and uses Auspex 10, for a moment, you have near omniscience.Your brain is melting

Kokoro: Time to make a new character

Me: You are alive, this is him showing you how OP 10th level disciplines are

Sadb: Oh, my sire. Can I eat her

Kokoro: Wait what?

Hortensius: Sadb is the first Lhiannan. Part of their clan’s problems is that they lose a generation whenever they embrace

Kokoro: Why?

Sadb: Because my sire fused a nature spirit to me and made it so that would happen by breaking pieces off of it, ensuring that I would become weaker than her.

Hortensius: If we win, we can stake her, drain someone of blood, and put some of her vitae in them so you can diablerize a Third Generation

Sadb: I am holding you to that. I lost my supernatural beauty from this curse

Hortensius: So much like Basket

Kokoro: So, why should we trust Ventru

Hortensius: Ventru was worshipped a Greek god, guess which one

Kokoro: Zeus?

Hortensius: No

Kokoro: No idea

Hortensius: Hera

Kokoro:…That doesn’t make me feel better

Hortensius: Goddess of Motherhood and Protection, appeal to her Mom nature.

Kokoro: But she has dominate 10 and presence 10,

Hortensius: Talk to her like a person, and give her no reason to use those on her. Pretend to be a human being.

Kokoro: So, we are supposed to get a semi-reasonable Antedeluvian to convince the others to help. How are we supposed to find her?

Hortensius: Would I be asking for your help if I knew that?

Kokoro: But what are we supposed to do?

Hortensius: Research, talk to people, investigate. I need to make sure we don’t have reality break from my sister waking up screaming in terror or Mother talking to her in her sleep to spawn horrible monsters that eat everyone.

Bruce: That would be bad

Hortensius: So, The Voivode will know of this operation, and I give this building and its grounds to you as domain. Do with it as you will.

Me: I imagine that all of you want to drink heavily after that, and go to a bar to drink from black out drunk people

Kokoro: Definitely

Me: Hmm, Sadb would be incredibly horrified by the bar

Kokoro: They had taverns in her era

Me: Yes, but there were certain things that were expected there which are illegal now, you probably see her looking around, asking you where the courtesans are and why that is rude to ask since she wanted to just give someone money she Presenced away from other patrons and pay them to let her feed.

Kokoro: Yeah, that is illegal now

Sadb: That must have caused problems.

Kokoro: So, you were Third Generation

Sadb: Yes

Kokoro: And are like…eight now

Sadb: Also yes

Kokoro: Why?

Sadb: Because of the mechanics of my curse, made so that my sire, The Crone, would have far more power over me. Imagine it, being a Blood God of the Third Generation and making a Childer to share your glory with, then being bumped down to the mere Mortal status of the Fourth Generation.

Kokoro: I can see someone putting that in as a failsafe.

Sadb: I am in this group to torture my sire.

Kokoro: Who tried to blood bond Caine

Sadb: Yes

Kokoro: We are in danger.

Spoiler: Flash Forward 3

Me: So, all of you are brought back to the hotel that Mekhet has given you, but basket does not know this, nor does she know about a lot of things. *Describes the relationship drama of Lodin, his sire, his sugar momma, and great-granddaughter childe lover, then the entire murder fest which the meeting was* People think that terrorists attacked the opera house in the 90s. All of you are in the hotel’s lobby, everything is clean, there is not a spec of dirt to be seen and Mekhet is standing at the top of the stairs, with a tight smile where it is clear that he is not happy.



Basket: So



Me: he is glaring at Kokoro with an expression of “Why do you exist”



Basket: I ask that question every day, she’s not even an artist, she is just a warrior. Why isn’t she a brujah, or a Gangrel, or hell even some of the other ones like venture.



Kokoro: The only one which could work for that is a brujah as a warrior artist



Me: You could be a warrior artist brujah



Basket: I don’t see you as an artist really



Me: Honestly, all of them can be warrior artist



Basket: She has shown very little artistic talent so far



Me: Her art is swording



Basket; So a warrior cosplaying as an artist, I am very sorry



Me: Well she wears ridiculous clothes, given that token



Basket: I think everyone here besides Bruce wears ridiculous clothes



Me: Sadb might wear a ballgown but Abbas wears a suit and Iskander, Kokoro’s boyfriend, wears normal people clothes including a t shirt, jeans, and a leather jacket



Basket: Wow, I almost feel bad for him and want to get him something better



Bruce: he has nice clothes



Me: He dresses like a normal human being



Basket: No, you are a vampire, he should show off



Me: it is an expensive leather jacket



Basket: What if I give you a very expensive leather vest



Iskander: Looks at her in disgust



Basket: Is something wrong



ISkander: Vests are ugly



Basket: Gosh



Iskander; If you wear something over a shirt it must cover your arms



Basket: That is only one part of a vest, you can look like a stage musician, or a homeless boy in England with those silly hats



Kokoro: Given how much you focus on fashion, you are a fashionista cosplaying as a mage



Mekhet: *slaps Kokoro*



Me: Roll stamina, I am serious



Kokoro: *fails against potence powered Antedeluvian*



Basket: Is she dead



Me: so that is 12, with potence on his level that is lethal’



Kokoro: At this point I am dead



Basket: That was quick



Me: And he just looks at Kokoro down on the ground and gives her blood to blood bond that



Basket: Look on the bright side, you get a blood sugar daddy



Kokoro: I might as well just not be here



Me: You know that Basket is the only one in this group that he likes, and you tend to be incredibly flippant around the god vampires. We can roll this back, but please remember that people can kill or mind control you for a slight. Remember, there are very powerful people, two, diablerizing people can lead to issues so be careful with that



Kokoro: I know that part



Me: You were trying to diablerize random people en masse on the ground in the previous session, with no preparation



Kokoro: That was before I realized they were already dying



Me: Dying is part of diablerie



Kokoro: But they were almost dead



Me: You were trying to diablerize them when people were dying, and you thought that that you could just do that without a willpower roll which is the part that can screw you in diablerie. So, you get the feeling that Mekhet is getting ready to beat you up



Mekhet: Everyone stop being catty with each other



Basket: I will be polite as long as you employ Koko



Kokoro: Deal



Basket; We can stab each other in the back later



Kokoro: When he is not looking



Mekeht: I have auspex, I will check when one of you has died



Kokoro: Oh



Basket: I am not going to kill Kokoro



Mekhet: Okay, Basket, these wonderful friends of yours, and they are your friends now, volunteered to help me with something



Basket: I am glad to hear that.



Mekhet: They have volunteered to find Ventru, my dear dear friend who is hopefully not still staked



Basket: Do you know what he likes to eat specifically, I feel like this would be very helpful



*Lots of us all repeating She to Basket as the player does not realize that we are saying that Ventru is a woman*



Basket: What does she like to eat, kings, politicians, something that is way worse. Where would we even find nobles



Mekhet: So in about two thousand years, I forget when that last one was made, back in the Roman empire before she turned gauls into vampires…about one thousand three hundred years ago or two thousand, and was mostly eating members of the Roman upper class.



Basket: So Italian upper class men



Mekhet; *stares at her for saying that Italian is Roman*



Basket: I don’t think that we can just get a roman vampire



Me: Lucian is a roman



Basket: I imagine he does not want to get eaten.



Me: Roll me int



Kokoro: The only thing we can do if they don’t know what they need to do, research



Other: Sure



Kokoro: Iskander can scoure the internet and I can try to do some legwork by talking to people



Me: ISkander and Mekhet stare at you as you say internet



Kokoro: I know that they internet is not as fleshed out as it is now



Me: It is just that over 6000 year old vampire since before christ



Kokoro: Not directly, but maybe tangential information



Basket: For all we know she is buried under a roman catholic church



Mekhet; No no no, that is Malkav, and he is beneath Jerusalem



Basket: So, Koko, since you know the internet and I am an old woman who refuses to learn technology, I can go ahead and go through any old libraries and read. You can try the internet and talk to people, I feel like somehow you are going to succeed in that



Kokoro: I will go with bruce to talk to people



Basket: I thought you could use the internet



Iskander: *stares when they imply Kokoro knows how the internat works*



Basket; I can’t tell, I don’t know shit about it. I guess your servant will be looking Koko



Kokoro: Not my servant



Me: This is going over a long time, and everyone has two dots to use for the haven slash domain, including NPCs



Basket: What nation are we in



Kokoro: US



Basket: Not sure why I thought we were somewhere else



Me; Mekhet and Ceasar’s palace



Basket; That’s right



Me: It starts with 1 security, 1 luxury, and 5 size due to being under renovation and given to you people



Basket; That is fun



Me: The domain is size 2, integration and security are 0 before we add in the stuff from your coterie type.



KOkoro: So what I know about Enoch



Me: It is the first city



Bakset: Wasn’t it destroyed



Me: It is like vampire atlantis



Basket; Pretty sure it was destroyed



Me; Yes, a magical flood that nearly wiped out the human race did it.



Basket; I kind of want to put everything in luxury, wait, we literally could just have no security



Me: You are going to be moving around, also, on merits you can make it be haunted by ghosts



Basket: I think I’d need necromancy



Bruce: We should focus on security since it might get stolen or destroyed if we put nice stuff in it



Basket: I am going to go into the corner and sulk since I have been outvotes


Sadb: I understand, I understand these things



Basket; I want marble floors, but apparently we need guards for when we are asleep



Bruce: We can work towards it



Kokoro: Protecting it is the first priority



Sadb: Enoch had unlivign stone floors that grew as you gave it blood



Basket: So what security should we get



Me: everyone gets points



Basket: I guess I should put stuff in library or location. So one in library, one in warding since that will be important. I can live without luxury for a few weeks. So, specialty



*argument over what a demon is*



Basket: The library specialty is occult vampire



Kokoro: I will put one in watchmen and one security.



Me: How are you getting guards.



Kokoro: We can’t go to Voivode involved since the less she is involved in us the better



Me: I think the revenant you hired has strong feelings about that, as would Basket



Basket: You might get away with it if you don’t talk to me ever.



Me: Please remember that you have Presence



Kokoro: Let’s just go with paying people



Me: The question is what kind of people you are highering



Basket: War vets, as long as they aren’t mentally messed up



Bruce: I am getting security and one in luxury



Me: So as basket is drawing warding circles with blood covered chalk, she sees Bruce come in with workers as he decorates the area



Basket: I feel like I got scammed



Bruce; What?



Basket; I was suggesting we go pure luxury and then you went and got it



Me: Abbas is spending his time getting medical equipment, but then the next day he brings in a laboratory as well.



Bruce; I thought you said a lab like the dog.



Me: It is laboratory science medical I guess, so he has a bonus to biology stuff. The medieval woman wearing a bright red ball gown brings in more luxury since she is not living in a sty



Kokoro: Someone has their priorities straight



Sadb: I was asleep for five hundred years



Me: Iskander gets Postern which is a secret tunnel, and a cell, would he have it be full of humans or vampires



Kokoro: Vampires



Me: So, he lures in two neonates who have no idea what is going on.



Basket: What is their appearance?



Me: One has appearance one, the other has appearance 2



Basket; They can rot



Me: So, he is feeding them blood so he can feed on him



Basket: Kokoro, you can practice diablerie.



Me: They are shovelheads, they have no disciplines they are that fresh



Basket: Are they caitiff?



Me: You have no idea, and a lot of what goes on down there is Sadb taking out their organs and scrying with them before putting them in a pot, which grows ever more and more filled with organs and other horrible things



Basket/Kokoro: Okay



Me: So the basement has her with that cauldron which she stirs, sometimes there are bodies in there.



Basket; I don’t question that, I probably want to learn more



Me: are any of you living in the hotel now?



Kokoro: It is luxury 4 so why not



Basket: I can just move in an out since I have a job elsewhere



Me: Kokoro lives there, Abbas lives there with his retainers for the medical area



Basket: I could keep my herd down there



Me: Are you guys actively using this place as a hotel to make money or no



Basket: We could make it a library, no one needs to know that people are beneath it.



Me: Eleven floors of libraries



Basket: Hey, London has bigger ones



Kokoro: Or it could be a multipurpose building



Basket: So, how much of a library do we need



Me: You could just have the basement levels be library



Basket: First floor and basement floor can be a library



Bruce; That is good



Me: I need to check how many floors this is. Okay over 540 bedrooms, I don’t see anything about the basement. I am going to assume at least five given the size and how Mekhet has been there



Bruce; We could call the Drake hotel and ask



Me; I think I’d end up in a watch list, I already had to find a floor plan and that was hard. So, is the library publicly known



Basket: yes



Me: So, a for profit library



Me: Given that Mekhet owns ceasar’s palace, that isn’t even all that weird in this universe. I think this is a politics roll for setting it up, does anyone have finance?



Basket: Oh, I do



Me: So finance to get books



Basket: 3 successes



Me: Okay, so 3 success finance to pay for this.



Kokoro: Is it intelligence for politics?



Me: I want to say charisma since schmoozing, it is part schmoozing part finding legal reseason



Basket: I think it should be int



Me: Charisma plus politics then int plus law since we have things like manipulation plus occult for certain rolls



Kokoro: 7 successes on politics



Basket; I think we found backers, why do I get the feeling we might not do so well in law



Kokoro: 6 successes law



Me: Roll manipulation plus scrounge for Bruce



Bruce: 7 successes



Basket: I was the least useful



Me: I am going to check if anyone else has finance



Basket: Mekhet?



Me; He trusts it in your hands as he has faith in you, not in anyone else in this group.



Me: Abbas’s expression well writing is 4, do any of you look into the lives of your coterie mates



Kokoro: Yeah



Basket: I want to learn from my granny about alchemy and potions



Sadb: Baba Yaga is the one who likes to be called granny



Me: Um, Abbas got 11 successes on writing



Kokoro: DAMN



Me: He has published a book, My Time at The Academy



Basket: That sounds like a manifesto



Me: So, this book is about his time in china and how he did not believe in atheism and how he was sent by his military to help the Soviets fight in Afghanistan, but he killed his team and went over to the other side for The Lion of Panjshir, an Afghani anti-communist guerilla who was known for the fact that he was not just a theocratic Islamist, instead fighting for democracy



Me: Abbas fought for this man for a long time and nearly died, and was in a transformative state (Vampirism) where he met a great teacher (his sire) who told him of more religions, bringing him throughout the desert where he felt alienated and met others who felt the same way, learning under the teachers of Heaven, The Beast, Kingship, and Sin among others. But how he could not believe in any of these things, and found the remnants of an ancient academy of humanist philosophy, and came to believe that the community was most important though he is still religious. Soon he came to the sea with his teacher and was even more alienated as he traveled the ocean among monsters who had twisted these philosophies to justify being horrible to others, and how he had to hide his beliefs, but he has found a harbor, a safe haven in Chicago where he can spread his world.



Me: It is all about vampires, it is veiled, but it is all about vampires



Basket: Is this a Dracula scenario?



Me: He has detailed descriptions and nonjudemental explanations of the Paths of Enlightenment, and there are humans reading these passages and nodding about how this has something to do with the human condition and makes sense.



Basket: Want to write a book about the antedeluvians and how the first city fell?



Me: He could



Bruce: That is Harry Potter



Me: This place is now very famous as the story framing of the book is about how he is in this library writing



Basket; Yes, visit our beautiful library it inspired him. I could use kindred iconography for our staff, they are all goth teenagers now *11 successes on art*



Basket: This is like Michalangelo painting the Cistine Chapel when he just wanted to make sculpture



Me: This thing has the best thing you have ever made on top of it, so the two of you are just crying…this book does describe the path that you are on in detail



Kokoro: Do I need to roll to resist the clan curse?



Me: Self control difficulty ten



Basket: I’m sorry we have 20 successes together



Kokoro: *Just barely succeeds*



Me: You wrench your eyes away from this art and it hurts to do so



Kokoro: I am crying. What did I do with the library though



Me: Embezzle money to pay for this and make it legal for books which should not be moving to somehow end up here. And…9 successes on Sadb, you need to roll again Kokoro



Kokoro: *fail*



Me: So, she has surreal beauty so she has appearance effective 7 and -1 difficulty as well. *7 on grace* And she is using animalism so this is essentially a Disney scene and she is singing an appropriate 90s song



Basket: I figure she is just learning modern stuff by listening to the radio and tv



Kokoro: Would my band be here some of the time?



Me: Yes, this place is very very very famous now.



Basket: Are we going to end up with a mage coming in and kicking down the door since we somehow have the Necronomicon.



Me: You don’t know that. Bruce already has that since like 3 sessions ago. So, Bruce had 7 successes on his collecting. Did you increase the team occult library, or just your own?



Bruce: My own



Me: So you have a personal occult library of three. So you have a lot of really old occult books, and a vast number of normal ones. This is +2 for occult rolls and -1 on difficulty, you also have +1 from the shared library



Basket; he is somehow better than me



Me: He just has a lot of books.



Bruce: *sets up a magical workshop before using haruspicy animal disembowlment*



Me: Int plus occult to sanctify the area, then haruspicy



Bruce: Does it



Me: *rolls a 96 out of 100* Okay, so the sanctify lowered the difficulty…for some reason successes equal size on that ritual…um would you be doing this in front of people.



Bruce: That is up to them, I would have told them that I am doing this



Me: Everyone, this is the first time he has told you about doing magic



Bruce; I don’t believe it but watch



Me; Do you keep the book on you while doing it



Bruce; Does it help me?



Me; Yes, if you want it, roll willpower



Basket; If you summon a demon I swear to god



Me: So you get 3 more succsses. So what do you want?



Bruce: Ventru’s future whereabouts



Me: Basket, you have linguistics



Basket; yes *rolls int plus linguistics*



Me: Bruce’s magical formulae are in 8 different languages



Basket: I am worried about how he learned those behind my back *succeeds occult*



Me: He is using Koldunism, do you have auspex on?



Basket/Kokoro: Yes



Me; The items around you are far more active, you can see the spirit of the altar and the knife as Bruce stabs into the rabbit, sucking its lifeforce. The walls have spirit, the air has spirits, the ground and blood have spirits as he hunches over the altar, lapping it up



Basket; he is showing off



Bruce; The GM definitely is



Me: There is a Minotaur is watching over you with a smile as great black wings spread out of the shadows as another creature appears



Basket; You summoned a demon



Me: This is how KOldunism works, the two disappear as they turn inside out and move in a dimension that should not be, Bruce stuffs the rabbit in his mouth as he dances in a spiral, disappearing and reappearing as the spirits are sucked in, he vomits the rabbit out as he then spews out his own blood in organs as he cuts it open again while it begins to scream. Then he takes another rabbit and sews it up and eats the two, then the rabbit jumps out of his throat and speaks in his voice



Demon Rabbit; What do you wish to know?



Bruce: We want to know-



Basket; We want to



Me; Only Bruce can ask



Bruce; I want to know where Ventru will be in the future



Rabbit: Your second question



Bruce: I only need one



Basket; Do-



Me: Everyone sees something, a woman in a green dress made of scale armor and feathers, she is standing in a sunless city in a throneroom which has thirteen coffins that are sealed, and more that are broken. There is a woman sitting on a throne of bone, you all know that it is Caine’s throne. The seated woman looks upon the one in the peacock dress and asks ‘Who are you, why have you come to Enoch’



Basket; Wait us?



Me: You see yourselves all there



Basket: What is happening?



Me: you are having a vision



Bruce; Of a green lady on caine’s throne



Me: No, there is a Green lady talking to another on caine’s throne



Bruce; What is with the coffin, who is the woman in the throne?



Me: You don’t know



Woman on the Throne: *Points at Peacock Woman* This is Enoch, the land of those truly faithful to the Antedeluvians and the end of the world. None who are not of the true black hand may step here



Peacock Woman: *laughing*



Me: This is not happy laughter



Bruce; Anime villain laughter?



Basket: yes



Me: very sad disbelieving laughter



Woman on the Throne: This is the throne of Lilith, the True Caine



Me: The woman in the Peacock dress stops laughing and stares, Basket, you see four wizened old wizards who have an aura of stasis. Not even entropy but an end of all change. These are not vampires sitting next to the woman on the throne. The woman in the Peacock dress stares at them all in disappointment, and then she says “Kill yourselves” and then everyone starts taking out knives and killing each other



Kokoro: Oh, that is Ventru, Dominate 10



Me: She slowly walks up to the woman on the throne and says, “Lilith never sat in that throne, and get off my Grandfather’s seat” Then she sinks her fingers in this Methuselah’s skull and tears it open, showing brain as she tears it apart in a frenzy



Bruce: This is-



Kokoro: This is Ventru, guess we need to find out where Enoch is



Basket: So that implies, wait, this is the future not the past



Me: This could be after you find Ventru and she ends up there, it could be that she wakes up before you find her and gets there, all you know is that she ends up there



Basket; Enoch is in the afterlife, so we need to go to there.



Me; you have two more questions



Basket: We should ask about how to get to Enoch



Bruce: …So we could ask where to find her, how to find her, the best way to find her, is it dangerous to find her



Me: this is a second level ritual, if it was this easy to find ventru people would have done it already



Kokoro: Let’s ask how to find enoch, and when ventru goes there



Me: Bruce, what do you ask.



Bruce: How to find enoch



Kokoro: But she is going to enoch



Me: It could be that she goes there after you find her. You asked where she goes, not where she is.



Basket: Where can we get an idea of where she is.



Bruce: I ask, How can we find Ventru



Me: You see an ancient Germanic man sleeping, blood is flowing through his coffin and up through a city where a prince is ruling



Kokoro: How do we know it is in Germany?



Me; You see Heinrich Himmler. He was turned by a Tremere



Basket: Yeah, that makes sense



Me: You see Heinnrich Himmler making a speech to…you know what Neo-Nazis look like



Bruce; Oof



Basket; He is an actual Nazi



Me: he is making a speech to Nazis alongside Herman Goring



Bruce; There are Nazi vampires?



Basket; yes, we need to kill them



Me: They claim that the Anarch Revolt shall come true as they will rise and free the people, socializing them, they make wild claims such as that the Antedeluvians are Jewish, and that Cain is the one True Aryan. You know that this is not right. And you see these people fight the Prince as he takes up a sword to fight them and the Primogen, a circle breaks on both sides slaughtering each other, as Berlin is swallowed up in blood, the ancient rises, looks up, and says “Mother, what have they done?”



Me: And then you see others, a King in London sleeping underneath the world as time moves backwards, seeing the end of world war 2, the blitz where he is sealed underneath the rockets hitting the area, the beginning of world war 2. You see a man whispering sweet nothings to a Toreador and Tzimisce until jealousy breaks them apart and he is stabbed by his Childer outside of Constantinople, screaming in pain as the sun starts to rise only to have another drain him dry. You see a woman sitting at a table, listing while very confused as people talk about a revolution and how they need to kill the Tzimisce in Chicago. She is saying “sure sure yeah” while having no idea what is happening



Basket; That is fair



Me: There is a man in Montenegro, sleeping with no idea of what is happening. You see another man devoured by a Gangrel who splits into two, one going to the Sword of Caine, and another to the Camarilla. You see an ancient man devoured by a demon possessed goddess who seals away the monster in her as she flees to Britain and her blood flows into another within the Chicago area. A warrior goddess fighting a redheaded woman and beautiful incubus man fighting in Carthage as arrows fly, armies clash, and demons rise from the ground. A silver haired mage of some sort is at her back, blasting away the horrific monsters as the warrior goddess plunges a stake into the Redhead, Brujah’s, heart and says “You have fallen to the Great Enemy.” The incubus, the Baali, screams in rage as he lifts the warrior up frenzying as he breaks her spine over his knee. The mage attempts to stake the Baali, but he bites into her, ripping out her organs, the Mage uses her short moments to throw down a stone which causes them all to sink into the ground as the land turns to salt



Bruce: I asked how now who?



Me: You see wisemen traveling around the world to meet these people, but reality splits apart and you see one timeline where The Baali wakes up and you see two great great evils rise out of Carthage and consume Africa.



Basket;Africa is always screwed



Me: You saw Two Baali eat a continent.



Everyone: *rolling occult to know who the split person was*



Me: You recognize who the Gangrel became.



Kokoro: What do you mean?



Me: The Gangrel split between two peple. Basket, that was Qurakh, a Gangrel who diablerized the Ventrue Methuselah Alexander of Paris with the help of the Tremere



Basket; Oh



Me: he was a Mongolian warlord and lover of the leader of the Treyvalic Tremere, a Tremere who went to the pagans of the area and said, “Oh I am a god” One of the people he became is Hassan al-Samir, the Warlord of the Camarilla i.e the Camarilla’s head murder person who leads there military endeavours



Basket; We should probably tell someone, but that might not end well



Me: The other is Jalan-Aajav, who is in a similar position as a Seraph of the Sabbat’s Black Hand. He leads the militariies of both groups



Basket: I feel like we need to tell more people



Kokoro: We’d be considered crazy



Me: A methuselah is playing both sides and is a Gangrel



Basket: I am disappointed



Me: He set up the factions to set up an eternal war for his enjoyment



Basket; he could just do it in the middle east



Me: he is a mongol warlord, he has fought everywhere



Kokoro: The Jyhad is meaningless now



Me: Yes, the Gangrel well



Basket: Bruce, how about we ask another question?



Me: Bruce have one more. Also Basket, did you identify who that was to others?



Basket: No, if it gets out I would not get to live.



Bruce: *gets the successes needed to Identify it all*



Me: You know that the Gangrel are Winning



Kokoro: Always were



Basket: Um, Bruce how about you give me that book? Also I feel disappointed about this situation, at least it isn’t the Nosferatu. They are winning the great game



Kokoro: The one they rigged form the start



Bruce: Who is most likely to help us?



Me: The one buried in Carthage, you see her screaming in horrible agony, buried with one of the Baali founders, Troile the head of the Brujah, and a third that you don’t know.



Basket: I want to try to get the book to show to my leader



Me: Bruce, do you let that happen. You love this book, it makes you feel whole



Bruce: Sure



Basket: Thank you very much, it is a wonderful gift



Me: Basket, roll willpower



Basket: *Botch*



Me: This is not good



Basket; My best stat betrayed me, I have been immune to mind control, but fail because of a book



Me: First you see a screaming malkavian being puppeted by a demon in the earth, but pulling the demon’s strings is an ancient monster from the dawn of humanity, something very different, the most hideously ugly woman you have ever seen, a crone, The Crone.



Basket: EEEEEEE



Me: You see yellow gnarled teeth as she says, “Hello Child.”



Basket: Nononono



Kokoro: Baba Yaga



Me: Nope



Crone: You are so beautiful, as I once was, do you know who rejected me for what was underneath my skin, which every uhman has



Basket; Flesh



Crone: yes, Adam diid not like the flesh which I have, and he has, and rejected me as he saw the creation of life



Me: You feel claws in your brains Basket, everyone else, you see Basket convulsing on the ground



Crone: I was cursed with ugliness while he got to have Eve



Basket: Help me, let me wake up



Crone: and then I found Lilith and then Caine, and I went to Caine wishing to have what Lilith and Adam could not



Kokoro and Bruce: I bonk Basket on the head



Basket; Why



Crone: And Caine came to me, saying that there was a woman who saw the future, and how he wished to possess her heart. But he rejected me when I attempted to claim him, he staked me, and when I awoke, my children had gone to him. But I found a way for my vengeance



Me: Seriously, what are you two doing



Kokoro: Bonking her on the head



Bruce: Bonking her on the head



Basket; I just want to wake up



Me: Bashing someone’s head when they are having a seizure does not help



Basket: I wanted to point that out, but this was just funny



Abbas: You idiots, why *pushes Kokoro and Bruce away*



Kokoro: It is a magic seizure



Abbas: *occult+int then medicine+int* *Grabs incense and orther rituals to wake Basket up*



Crone: *grips Basket’s head* And I found my elder sister, a wonderful wonderful tool



Me: This book was influence by the Crone, a second generation vampire



Basket: Didn’t she die



Me: Mekhet told you that she is working with Lilith



Basket; Antedeluvian, Antedeluvians are bullshit hacks



Me: Second gen



Basket: Worse than Antedeluvians



Me: the book is tied to Bruce, and doesn’t like you Basket, but likes Bruce.



Basket: I guess he is easier to corrupt



Book: I don’t like her, Mumsie



Basket:…The book is talking to me?



Me: Even the book doesn’t like the Crone



Basket: Not a hard feat. I guess I’ll put the book in a tight sealed box and say that I will examine it with a doctor nearby. Then I cry myself to sleep before going to the Chantry



*at the chantry*



Dusable: We should keep the book for ourselves



Nicolai: We should never let this book in this room, ever



Me: Dusable clearly wants this book, looking at it in hunger and will do unspeakable things to it



Basket: It is bound to a Gangrel



Dusable: We could put him into torpor



Basket: He is my friend



Dussable: what are friends in comparison to great power



Kokoro: This is why people don’t like Tremre



Basket; yeah



Nicolai: This was made by one of the most ancient blood sorcerers, don’t touch it



Basket; Yeah, I had horrible nightmares from it



Me: Nicolai looks physically pained, Dusable just wants to speak sweet nothings to this book



Kokoro: I imagine him speaking French to the book.



Basket: Nicoali, help



Me: Nicolai pushes Dusable out and closes the door with his mind



Basket; This is dangerous, a Gangrel has control over it, I don’t think I can give it to anyone since they might be cursed, but I do have access to it



Me: Do either of you open the book?



Basket; No, I am not insane



Me: Nicolai puts on lead lined gloves and carefully opens the book



Basket; I take a few steps back just in case



Me: He gets continuously paler as he reads, then closes the book



Nicolai: So, this can break blood bonds, and if it is ever in the hands of the tremere will probably destroy our clan



Basket: We won’t talk about this detail



Nicolai: Yes, well, it was written by the Crone



Basket: *describes what happened*



Nicolai: This talks about how to use…a thing you did in the past with a werewolf or relative of one, to blood bond people, and those who do that thing…will also be blood bonded to their partner and a third individual who holds this book



Basket: HOW DID HE FIND THIS BOOK, didn’t he get it in a back alley?



Nicolai: It will make one fanatical, always destroy blood bonds attempting to bind them, allow them to destroy their own sanity for power, and if you teach how to do that with a person, they can even be blood bonded to a mortal somehow, and it tells of Gehenna



Basket: Let’s try to burn it



Me: He tries, it disappears, Bruce, the book is right back in your lap, and you love this book, it makes you feel whole. Basket, you and Nicolai look at this and go “oh no” but can guess where it went.



Kokoro/Basket: Use the book for a blood bond army



Me: I just want you to know that Sexually Transmitted Blood Bond Disease is a thing in canon.



Kokoro: So, we need to find out how to get the Ventrue trapped in Carthage without waking up the Baali



Basket: And there are a few people around that we can talk to about this issue.

 

So yesterday I played a wizard in Dnd 5e for the first time and had a lot more fun than expected. It was a one-shot adventure, so my character's backstory was that he was basically an unpaid student intern from a prestigious magical academy who'd signed up with an adventuring party in order to get some "practical" experience.

The fun part was that this adventure involved helping out a "master wizard" who'd been turned into a sheep by his apprentice. Since the intern was the only one who could use the Speak to Animals ritual, he was the only one who could communicate with the transformed wizard. Over the course of the adventure, the intern became more and more annoyed with the whole situation, leading to one of the funniest final boss fights I've ever taken part in:

Spoiler: Boss Fight

So after we finally track down the runaway apprentice, we find out that the whole "transformed into a sheep" thing was an accident. The apprentice had somehow made a cursed polymorph staff, transformed his master into a sheep, freaked out, and ran away from home. Unfortunately, while we wanted to solve the problem peacefully, things soon fell apart due to the apprentice's paranoia (and also my really bad Persuasion rolls).

Cleric: Look, I'm sure that we can all solve this peacefully. Just calm down and put down the staff.

Apprentice: S-stay back! Don't come any closer! J-just bring me the sheep and I'll change him back and everything will be fine!

My character, the unpaid Wizard Intern: Uh, actually, I don't think that staff you're using is very stable. I mean, it's pretty decent work for an apprentice, but I'm not sure if it'll work properly to reverse the transformation. Look, why don't you and your master come with us back to my academy. That way, we can get an actual professional to solve this problem. *proceeds to roll a 2 and a 5 on my Persuasion check with advantage*

Apprentice: Wait, how did you know- oh, I see how it is! You're a wizard too, aren't you? You're just here to take my place! You're my replacement!

Intern: Excuse me?!

Apprentice: Well screw you! I've worked for Master Brightstar for years! I've cooked his meals, cleaned up after his experiments... and now you think you can just come in and take my place? You bastard!

Intern: Okay, first of all, I'm a Conjuration specialist, not a fucking Transmutation specialist. And second of all, even if I was a Transmutation specialist, why the fuck would I come to study under some fucking hermit who's spent the last hundred years sitting in the woods and fucking around with weird animal transformation research?

Apprentice: You take that back, Master Brightstar is the greatest wizard of all time!

Master Brightstar, currently a sheep: *BAAAA* (translation: "Exactly! How dare you insult me like that? Why, if I was in my normal form again, you'd be turned into a newt!")

Intern, finally snapping after the most stressful first day on the job imaginable: Alright, listen here you stupid hicks, I paid a fucking fortune and spent half my life working for this magical degree, but some goddamn elf hobo sitting in the woods thinks he can go "Oh, i'M A mAsTeR wIZaRd" just because he knows a few party tricks? If he's a "master wizard", then where's his fucking master's degree, eh?! You think you can just run around turning people into animals willy-nilly? I bet you don't even have a license for that staff, you fucking-

DM: Ok, roll for initiative.

So to sum up my character's development:

Spoiler: Beginning of adventure

Spoiler: End of adventure

 

My players....

Kokoro, the Toreador of the group ended up getting slow walked down to the basement of an art gallery by an Apostate Antediluvian (ones who went over to Lilith) that had integrated into a conflict site (Camarilla vs Ashirra vs Communist Anarchs) and got forced to drink the blood of Ilyes the Elder (Kokoro had eaten a True Brujah and Ilyes wants to use her to head over into Enoch and murder all of the "True Brujah"). This blood had some of Lilith's in it and others correctly recognized what was going on

Sadb (a childe of the Crone and original Lhiannan in my setting, is down to 8th gen due to continual siring and the mechanics of the bloodline) That was Ikopabe. He is weird. Ennoia became animals, Lau um Lasombra went to become a tentacle monster, Ikopabe wanted both and ended up becoming abyss monster animal things. Nothing good could have happened when she was alone with him

Basket: Are all of the Antediluvians just into weird sexual fetishes?

Sadb: Yes. So, we need to make some ghouls to stake her in the morning

Basket: I don't want to deal with ghouls

Sadb: It is ghouls or demons

Basket: I really don't like ghouls

Sadb: Then I am summoning demons

Basket: *not taking that seriously, makes a ward against kindred but leaves part of it open so she can lure Kokoro in, Sadb is making a bigger circle around this* So, Kokoro, what happened down there

Kokoro: *specifically not mentioning that she was fed blood by Ilyes the Elder*

Me: And you can see Sadb changing

Basket: *more interrogation*

Me: Sadb is continuing to chant

Basket/Kokoro: Int+occult to know what she is doing?

Me: Yes

Both succeed

Me: As she finishes, *over 7 successes* You see her summon a monstrosity made out of burning lead with long wings that have eyes inside of each and every molten feather. She summoned a demon

Basket: Is it going to say "Be not afraid" now?

Baraqiel: You have summoned me from the pits

Basket: Why did you summon a demon?

Sadb: I told you that I was going to do that. It was Ghouls or Demons and you said no ghouls.

Thus leading to Kokoro spilling the beans on everything, Basket using a copy of the Sabbat vaulderie ritual to break any ties Kokoro had to Lilith, and blood bonding Kokoro to the party. Also successfully talking a Watcher into giving them its true name. *They rolled really well on the creature's disposition*

 

I think you mean no Ghouls here, because otherwise that sentence makes no sense.

 

I meant ghouls

They also had mixed results at the local prince's gala, walking in when he was making a speech about Foucault (In France) and asking the human audience if Foucault did anything wrong, singling out those who said he did and having them move to a different room

Before allowing everyone to drain dry the people who didn't think Foucault did anything wrong

Me: *right before the bloodbath* if anyone wants to make an academics roll about history, you can

Kokoro and Basket succeed

Me: He did certain things to young boys while being an old man and advocated for things which most people would be horrified by

Kokoro: Oh.

*bloodbath begins*

Kokoro: Was that a fake out?

Me: So, with the timeline you have, this guy would have been a young boy when Foucault was alive. You might imagine that he hates Foucault.

Kokoro: Oooh. Yeah. With context, I can see why it was the ones who objected that got to live

Basket: *licking blood off the floor due to failed rolls*

 

shadowdice do you still have that asshole player in your group?

 

no

 

What caused you to finally boot him off the group for real this time?

 

it was stated like a year back that he had tried to launch a bullying campaign

 

Was it here or on Where GM Screams thread? God it's been so long.

 

Vampire

basket befriends a necromancer revenant and talks to a demon

Kokoro meets two Antediluvians and is made a tool in their plotting. Then gets blood bound to the party

Spoiler

Me: Okay, Bruce couldn’t make it, so let’s just assume that he is off doing Gangrel stuff. Now, you have met with the primogen who will introduce you to the prince later. You have also survived a plane crash. One where the people who were on it is publically available knowledge and there will be an investigation of

Basket: Oh right, people do that.

Kokoro: So I guess we send a note to the police

Me:….That’s not how you file a report with the police

Basket: So, we are going to the police station. I do not know French, so I am shouting loudly in English that our plane crashed and that we barely survived, having to fall into the water, swim to a yacht, and were recently brought in

Me: Okay, so roll manipulation+subterfuge

Basket: What?

Me: There was a lot more to that story and you were never in the water.

Basket: *3 successes and uses presence from the Brujah she ate, rolls Awe as well*

Kokoro: *adds onto this*

Me: Most of the cops are believing that except for one guy in a turban who is sitting back, giving you the stink eye, and snorting.

Kokoro: He has a turban?

Me: Yes, he has a turban

Kokoro: Why?

Me: You don’t know.

Basket: I ask him what is wrong?

Me: The policeman says that this is a rather odd story, and that he would prefer to know why the plane was shot down

Basket: I wouldn’t know that

Me: He continues to seem suspicious of this

Basket: Would you like to talk about this outside *leveraging presence*

Me: He agrees. So, you are out in the sea-salt tasting French night and he introduces himself as Rashid, Ghoul and Servant of the mighty Sultan Al-Azif *no one picks up on that* and asks why you have not introduced yourselves to the man.

Basket: Sultan, you mean the prince

Rashid: No, I mean the Sultan. Not the being who happily allows the pagans to flounce about.

Basket: Why does that matter

NPC Abbas: Oh no

After a few rolls they came to understand the issue. In addition to having a communist Anarch presence and Laibon presence, the city has an Ashirra presence

Me: Imagine the Ashirra as being like the Camarilla, only, with a sectarian aspect. The Camarilla does not give a damn what religion you are, they promote the idea that the Antedeluvians are dead or a myth, and are actually kind of against the idea of worshipping them, Caine, or Lilith, but tend to not do anything unless you cause a problem. They don’t even kill Satanist kindred unless they are actually summoning Demons. The Ashirra, however, want people to follow Islamic law. Which makes it so they don’t like the Laibon who worship their ancestors, spirits, what they view as pagan gods, and don’t believe that they are the cursed descendants of Caine who need to repent for their sins. Depending on the situation, they can interact well with the Camarilla and generally have a thing where they stay in their own territory, agree that the Sabbat are crazy, and have the same general rules when it comes to secular matters.

Basket: We are Camarilla, not Ashirra

Me: Abbas looks away, and you have the feeling that this ghoul really doesn’t care what sect you are in, because he believes that his is the best.

Basket: This is a Camarilla city

Rashid: Your prince and those before him allowed the city to be overrun with communists and have an Anarch beachhead, they are incompetent and should be deposed.

Kokoro: You are a ghoul

Me: You do not believe that he cares.

Kokoro: We aren’t going to your Sultan, go away now

Me: So, he uses obfuscate. Everyone roll initiative. Kokoro your auspex is too low, so it is Basket who can roll to see through his obfuscate. Abbas does not have auspex, Iskander does not have auspex, Sadb does.

Kokoro: He can obfuscate through my auspex

Me: You get the feeling that the Sultan is fairly low generation

Thus comes a scene where Basket is trying to direct Kokoro to stab the ghoul and failing due to the fact that he is still invisible to Kokoro, Sadb eventually summoning a horde of cats to swarm around the man and pull him to the ground, and Basket forming a lightning bolt to kill him before they run off to a cab

After Basket was stabbed several times in the gut.

Me: The cab driver looks back and asks if he should be driving you to a hospital. He is a Frenchman, he is not going to be impolite, but he does notice that Basket is bleeding. As a man, he does not want to draw attention to it, yet is quite worried.

Basket: Oh no, it is fake blood. We were coming from a party.

Me: He does not believe this, but can tell that you are American, and thus do American things like gun crime.

Abbas: I apologize, not all of us are like that

Kokoro: What?

Me: You get the feeling that he is talking about the Ashirra thing, given that he was turned in the middle east and at least nominally ascribes to the same beliefs as them. It occurs to you that there are likely different conceptions of what they should do in the sect given that there will be vampires older than Islam, ones from the beginning of it, and ones who are fairly young.

Kokoro: I tell him that it is no problem.

Me: You later see Donnar, who is just kind of confused since he can smell the blood on you

Basket: I get out and ask where is a good place to get blood

Donnar: Are you Anarchs or Camarilla?

Basket: Camarilla but I would prefer to be fairly full before showing up to the prince’s Elysium

Donnar: Well, the Anarch baron, Leopold Dupont has an art gallery. He is with that guy Salomon, childe of Rebekah childe of

Basket: OH GOD NO

Donnar: *some generations* childe of Ventrue. I would avoid confronting him, his sire was a friend of Judas and a member of the Sicari going around killing roman leadership and trying to foment the arrival of the messiah. I think she showed up in your city later. *Gives a description of a vampire they saw who got stuck in the earth*

Basket: Huh, well that is interesting.

*they go there*

Me: You see a man staring at a modernist painting which is all gray and industrial.

Leopold Dupont: You know, I have no idea what this is supposed to mean and it is ugly as shit

Kokoro: *makes roll to know the meaning of the art* It is about the alienation between man and his work

Leopold Dupont: Did I sound like I gave a damn about the deep meaning of really ugly art?

Basket: Hello, we are recent arrivals, I understand that you are the Baron, do you have problems with the camarilla?

Leopold: Depends on who you ask, anyways, I guess that you guys want blood?

Basket: Yes I would

Leopold: *takes them behind the gallery to a kitchen where a chef makes blood tofu* So, I understand that you guys fought the Sultan’s ghoul

Both of them: Yes

Leopold: Good to confirm.

*they go to the Elysium, which is a conference hall where they are currently talking about Foucault*

Me: You see a woman with a fancy hat outside of the room with a large dog by her side.

La Maupin: I am Sheriff Julie d’Aubigny the greatest voice in the world

Basket: I thought this woman was a myth

Kokoro: Who is this?

Basket: You but better swordswoman singer actress horseback rider adventurer

Me: The dog by her side registers as a vampire using shapeshifting to your auspex

Basket: It is perfectly reasonable that she has managed to get others to be her pet.

Kokoro: I will take all of that at face value

Me: Roll self control

Kokoro: *fail*

Me: You completely and totally agree with her assertation and wish that she would keep talking as she leads you in.

Basket: Okay, so this is interesting.

Me: Given the lack of reflection you can identify her as a Lasombra. When you walk in you see a stunningly beautiful young man talking about Foucault, his philosophy and theories on various social sciences, it goes on for a while as he addresses a very large crowd of mortals, though you notice that there are upper stands on the next floor full of vampires, and some vampires amongst the crowd. As things wind down, he asks the crowd if Foucault did anything wrong, anything at all. Some people do raise their hands, and he directs them to another room

Kokoro: Oh, so they are going to die

Prince Noa: Now, to the rest of those of the night. Please remember that much like our forefather, we are farmers, tending the garden and removing that which would pollute it. Sometimes feeding upon the fine fruit of our labors, but safeguarding it from those who would do far worse. So please, feast.

Me: You then see all of the vampires descend upon the crowd. People are screaming and banging on locked doors, arms and legs are being ripped off, entrails are spilling, the floor is just a mess of blood

Kokoro: Nice fakeout

Me: Roll int+academcis *both succeed* Foucault advocated for the removal of age of consent laws and how these things were liberating, and he practiced rather such things with young boys, sometimes in graveyards. Given the time of Foucault’s death, your general understanding of when the prince was embraced, and his physical age, you are pretty sure that there is a very personal reason for why he hates Foucault. Also, roll self control

Basket: *botch*

Me: you are licking blood off of the floor

Kokoro: Hello my prince

Me: Roll self control again due to superhuman appearance

Basket: Toreador parties must be horrible, all of you are constantly trying to restrain yourselves form falling to your curse

Kokoro: *bare success*

Me: Your primogens introduce you guys, he nods, the dog is whining and crying while Sadb looks terrified as the Prince goes to his consort and kisses him on the cheek as they watch the festivities.

Kokoro: What’s going on?

Sadb: *Hissing low* This is a bad place, we should leave, now. Now, just run now. If we are found out, people will die

Kokoro: What do you mean?

Sadb: You know what we were told before about Apostates

Kokoro: the prince is one?

Sadb: No, his lover is Ikopabe, imagine a cross between Ennoia and Lasombra. This is bad.

Basket: *gets out of the frenzy* Okay, what’s going on?

The party tries to talk to Prince Noa

Prince Noa promptly takes them to another area, with his consort standing there as well

Kokoro: Aaaaah

Me: Ikopabe sniffs the air and takes you by the shoulder, slowly guiding you down the stairs unless you do anything

Kokoro: I don’t know what to do

Me: You are out the door

Kokoro: I’d just die if I do anything

Me; I am giving you time. You are walking down the stairs

Kokoro: This is an Antedeluvian

Me: Prince Noa assures you that Ikopabe is cuddly and gentle at heart before addressing Basket

Basket: So, a city came up out of the ocean and shot down our plane *describes what happened while Kokoro ends up in the basement and sat down in a chair

Me: Ikopabe gently caresses your scalp before you feel claws dig into your flesh and draw blood, he sniffs it and seems disappointed as he can somehow tell that you are blood bonded.

Kokoro: What’s going to happen

Ikopabe: You smell of the ‘true Brujah’ those who have odd ideas. Describe them

Kokoro: *describes the memories she gained*

Me: He takes out a rock and crushes it. soon you see a man appear. You sense time distort but can’t tell what happens until there is just suddenly a new person here *put in image of Robert Downy Junior* who introduces himself by asking if you know who started the Brujah

Kokoro: Troile?

Ilyes: Somewhat correct, I am her sire, and she my diablerist. It is through her which all Brujah descend, including those who claim themselves to be True Brujah.

Kokoro: What do you want?

Ilyes: Troile’s death and that of every Brujah. To return to Enoch and expunge the pretenders there. And you shall help me do so.

Me: He sits down in front of you and asks if you know who trained Caine

Kokoro: Lilith

Ilyes: Correct. She who is the first woman, who is cursed by God yet not a vampire.

Me: He takes your hand and places it against his chest. It feels warm, alive

Ilyes: With the gift of Lilith, after seven draughts of her blood, we become Lilim, her children, freed of the state of unlife, reborn, more like a perfect version of ourselves. While we can enter the sun, we will be greatly pained, but not die, while immortal, we are alive.

Kokoro: I can see why you’d want to work for Lilith

Ilyes: Yes, you will. *hands Kokoro a stone* and you will break this upon arriving in Enoch, such that I may return and begin the cleansing.

Me: He then cuts open his wrist and forces you to drink. So, you temporarily have one extra dot in appearance, and three in true celerity.

Kokoro: Antedeluvian blood

Me: Yup. Then he disappears and Ikopabe leads you out up to the rest of the group.

Basket: Are there any good hotels to make our haven in?

Prince Noa: Of course *brings in more people* These are Anastasie Deschamps and Clementine Daniel. They have a wonderful story. The original Impudulu was married to a witch, a Bomkazi, when he died fighting a spirit, or rather a vampire, he was embraced. His wife used magic to conceive a dhampir daughter, and they later embraced a man who was treated as his son. Over time, the Impudulu became dependent on the Bomkazi, unable to sustain themselves on the blood of any other.

Basket; That sounds horrible

Me: Anastasie gives you a dead look which makes it clear that he agrees. Clementine ignores this and eagerly shakes your hand

Clementine: I’ve seen your dresses, all of them are wonderful

Basket: I have finally met a fan of my work, *instantly happy and talking to her as the group is led to a limo driven by Anastasie, it is made very clear that he is the one who hs to serve Clementine*

Kokoro: What am I gonna do, what am I gonna do?

Me: Everyone roll perception+alertness *they see a guy down the road with an RPG*

Basket: I am going to jump out of the car

Me: Roll initiative first

Kokoro: I do not have any ranged weapons other than knives *went first*

Me: Well, Clementine is next, she takes Basket’s hand and says. “I’ve got this” Before twisting a ring on her finger. Those of you with auspex see a ghost enter the assailant’s body before he explodes from the inside out. “See”

Basket: *makes a dress out of magic for Clementine* And I owe you a boon

Me: And mark her as an ally now

They went to the hotel, Kokoro did not tell anyone about what happened, leading to Sadb being paranoid and talking Basket into interrogating Kokoro

But Basket refused to make ghouls to stake Kokoro and immobilize her

Sadb: But we need a way to keep her in line

Basket: I do not want to deal with the upkeep

Sadb: Is is ghouls or demons

Basket: I don’t want ghouls

Thus we ended up with Basket making a ward versus kindred, somewhat open so she can finish it once Kokoro steps in, and reversing it so that she’d be stuck in it, all while Sadb is making another larger circle with the smaller one inside

Kokoro: I don’t know what you are talking about

Basket: Sadb said that the scary guy was an antediluvian

Kokoro: Look, would I lie to you?

Me: Sadb is chanting

They continue to argue

Me: Sadb continues to chant

They keep arguing

Me: You see a manlike figure that has a set of wings, his entire form made of molten lead appear as Sadb finishes

Basket; She was being serious

Me; Yes

Basket: Is this where you say fear not

Barakiel: You have freed me from the infernal depths, for this you have my thanks

Kokoro: *Starts saying everything that happened*

Basket: So you are part Lilith now

Barakiel: Oh No

Basket: You know her?

Barakiel: Yes, she is weird. I avoid her.

Basket: So how do we break any connection that Lilith might have

Sadb: We could drain her of all of her blood and replace it, or we can use a ritual to break any sympathetic connections and blood bonds, then bind her to the rest of us. We cannot have one where her blood is involved for obvious reasons

Basket: Which would you prefer, I can do the last one myself

Kokoro: The latter

Which is how Kokoro got blood bonded to the party

Basket: So, big demon guy, we will let you go if you give us your true name *rolls way too many tens and gets an honest answer*

Me: Sadb makes several chains appear and pull barakiel into herself.

Basket: You can do that?

Sadb: Reject Thaumaturgy, embrace Koldunic Sorcery, and yes.

Basket: So, we just have a demon in our pocket

Sadb: Yes

Basket: I love you ancient witch granny